HONG KONG - HSBC Holdings PLC said Friday that about 60 to 70 employees had left its corporate finance and equities business in London.
The company stressed that it still had "plenty" of analysts there and predicted it will grow in Asia, particularly in treasury and foreign exchange. It said it expected to make 100 to 150 hires in those areas in the next five years.
Stephen Green, executive director for HSBC's recently integrated corporate, investment banking, and markets unit, told reporters that staff turnover in London was mild compared with that of some HSBC competitors.
His comments followed news reports of a spate of analyst defections from the London bank. The defections came several months after HSBC cut bonuses to reduce costs, and Mr. Green said HSBC has done some hiring since.
"The percentage of our head-count that left is actually pretty small," he said. "If I look at total head-count," the reduction "is around 2%."
"We will be hiring people - we're not talking thousands - over a period of years," Mr. Green said. "To some extent, you react to specific circumstances in specific places." Stuart Gulliver, the group general manager of Treasury and capital markets, investment banking, noted the industry as a whole had shed thousands of jobs in the past 12 to 18 months.
"We'll add head-count in HSBC capital markets, specifically in derivatives - both currency and interest rate, both trading and sales," he added. In China, Mr. Gulliver said, HSBC will focus on sectors where it has experience. He noted that HSBC has done privatizations for European governments in industries that China will be restructuring.
"We won't be ambulance-chasing large mobile phone deals in China, which will be done by the [major] U.S. firms," Mr. Gulliver said.
Mr. Green said HSBC would not try to compete with major Wall Street rivals in mergers and acquisitions involving U.S. companies.
