HSBC reveals billion-euro share buyback as earnings beat estimates

Europe's largest bank, HSBC, announced an additional $3bn (€2.8bn) share buyback plan as it reported strong third-quarter earnings on Tuesday.

This brings the total return to shareholders to $9bn (€8.3bn) this year, including previously completed share repurchases. The board also approved a third interim dividend of $0.10 per share.

The solid results followed a sweeping overhaul unveiled last week, which are likely to have boosted investor optimism regarding its strategic cost-cutting measures. New CEO Georges Elhedery commented: "We delivered another good quarter, which shows that our strategy is working."

Michael Brown, Senior Research Strategist at Peperstone in London, noted that the increased share buyback is likely to be well-received, with pre-tax profits rising by nearly 10%.

However, he added: "Question marks remain over the restructuring plans outlined last week, and that will be the market’s primary focus going forward, to gauge whether HSBC can catch up with other UK banking peers which it has severely lagged behind of late."

The London-based bank reported a pre-tax profit of $8.5bn (€7.9bn), up 9.9% year on year. The strong quarterly results were primarily driven by growth in Wealth and Personal Banking, Foreign Exchange, and Investment Banking, as stated in the earnings report.

Overall revenue increased by 5% year on year to $17bn (€15.7bn), surpassing analysts' expectations of $16.22bn (€15bn). This was largely due to higher customer activity in wealth products.

HSBC also highlighted that increased client activity was significantly influenced by China’s stimulus measures in September: "These measures resulted in elevated volatility at the end of Q3 2024, leading to increased client activity, particularly in