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HSBC is “maniacally focused” on rebuilding its investment bank in Hong Kong after it missed out on a boom in public listings last year following a decision to exit parts of the business in the UK, US and Europe.
“If there is one area that we will be maniacally focused on, it is building out and improving our market share in [initial public offerings] coming out of Hong Kong,” Michael Roberts, who leads HSBC’s corporate and institutional banking unit, told the FT.
Hong Kong led the resurgence of public listings in Asia with a combined HK$286bn (£27bn) raised last year as mainland Chinese companies flooded into the territory to raise offshore funds to expand abroad.
HSBC ranked 10th in league tables for equity capital markets deals in Asia-Pacific last year, Dealogic data shows, thanks to a strong showing in India. But it missed out on the flurry of initial public offerings in one of its home markets.
Europe’s largest bank, which is ubiquitous in Hong Kong, acted as a lead sponsor in just one of the more than 100 listings on the Hong Kong Exchange in 2025, according to Dealogic.
“The Hong Kong market was the one that stung,” said one senior executive within HSBC, pointing out that several senior bankers in Hong Kong had defected to rivals following a decision to exit parts of the investment banking business in the UK, US and Europe.
The London and Hong Kong-listed lender lost out to US rivals such as Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, as well as to local Chinese outfits like CICC, data from the Hong Kong Exchange shows.
HSBC “lost some people it shouldn’t have but that is normal”, the executive added. It was “necessary pain” to achieve the restructuring plan set out by chief executive Georges Elhedery when he took the top job in September 2024, which is expected to deliver £1.5bn of annual cost savings.
Elhedery’s decision to shut down HSBC’s dealmaking and equity capital markets businesses outside Asia and the Middle East, citing its poor performance in rankings, was among his most controversial as chief executive.
The Lebanese-born banker pledged to “double down” on HSBC’s M&A and ECM businesses in the Middle East and Asia at the FT’s banking summit in December.
“We’re not today in the top five, but we can see a path to becoming a top five [player],” he said. “Not becoming top five [in the market] is not an option.”
Roberts has set out a plan to build out HSBC’s equity capital markets desk in the region by hiring bankers out of China to capitalise on the rush of Chinese companies listing in Hong Kong, a trend he expects will continue.
“Hong Kong is the connector to the world for China. That’s its purpose,” he said. “So that is great for Hong Kong [and] great for us. We were a little late, I think, in adding resources, but we have an aggressive plan to add resources in China,” Roberts added.
The boom in Hong Kong listings compared with a dearth of IPOs in London has provided some vindication to Elhedery’s plan to focus the investment banking business in Asia and the Middle East.
“There are more IPOs done in Hong Kong than in London now,” said Roberts. “If you were HSBC, where are you going to place your bets? The place which has the highest growth.”
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