HSBC said it has agreed to sell its banking business in Pakistan to Meezan Bank Limited, seven months after failing to win regulatory approval to sell it to another company.
The Pakistan unit has 10 branches and had assets of about $455 million at the end of 2013, HSBC said. It did not put a price on the deal and said it was subject to regulatory approval. It is expected to complete in the second half of 2014.
The sale continues a retreat by HSBC from countries where it lacks scale. Europe’s biggest bank has closed or sold more than 60 businesses in the last three years in an effort to cut costs and complexity.
Meezan Bank, a premier Islamic bank, posted 13% growth in after-tax profit that increased to Rs1.106 billion in the quarter ended March 2014 compared to Rs982 million earned in the corresponding quarter last year. Its deposits grew to Rs307 billion at the end of March against Rs290 billion on December 31, 2013, a growth of 6%.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 10th, 2014.
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