HSBC HSBC Holdings PLC

By Margot Patrick 

HSBC Holdings PLC Chief Executive John Flint spent the past seven years watching the bank undergo a radical overhaul under former boss Stuart Gulliver. On Friday, he signaled much of the heavy lifting is done and that his leadership will be a period of evolution not revolution.

"The strategy we have is working," Mr. Flint told shareholders at an annual meeting in London. "But we now need to keep evolving it and to deliver at pace."

Mr. Flint started as CEO in February after holding an array of top posts in 29 years at HSBC. He took over a bank in pared-down shape after exiting from dozens of businesses in the past several years and withdrawing from countries where it lacked scale or profitability.

On the sidelines of the shareholder meeting, Mr. Flint said he is still working on a strategy update to present to investors this summer. Analysts expect the plans to include more exits from certain retail markets and a possible merger or acquisitions for HSBC's asset-management arm, among other moves.

Mr. Flint played down any potential announcements about leaving countries, saying it is unfair to employees and could diminish returns from any sale.

"We just have to figure out what our priorities are going to be and what our targets are going to be," he said. "We will communicate as much as we reasonably can but it won't have a forward looking list of everything we're going to do in the next three years."

Mr. Flint said the bank can't realistically set any aggressive new targets until it meets current ones such as reaching a 10% return on equity. In 2017, the return was 5.9%.

"We've got to get to 10 first. Do I think the organization's got the potential for more than that? Look at our business in Asia, look at our business in the Middle East. The organization's got potential for more, but you've got to be credible in getting to the current target," he said.

The restructuring overseen by Mr. Gulliver marked a reckoning for a bank that had grown far from its 1860s roots as a Hong Kong trade bank into one of the largest in the world. Weakened both financially and reputationally by a disastrous, pre-financial crisis foray into U.S. consumer finance, and a $1.9 billion settlement over inadequate anti-money-laundering controls, HSBC renewed its focus on Asia and fast-growing parts of China.

Earlier this month, Mr. Flint took analysts on a tour of some of the bank's businesses in China, and has indicated the country will remain a key plank of growth plans.

Write to Margot Patrick at margot.patrick@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 20, 2018 12:30 ET (16:30 GMT)

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