HSBC revamps financing, advisory to help private credit push
The London-based lender said in a statement on Friday (May 16) that it was creating a new Capital Markets and Advisory group to house all of its disparate worldwide financing and investment banking activities under a single management structure, confirming an earlier Bloomberg News report.
'This is a model for the future, where we can best serve our clients and capitalise on the growth opportunities ahead,' said Michael Roberts, chief executive of corporate and institutional banking at HSBC.
HSBC is among lenders seeking to step up offerings in private credit, a US$1.6 trillion global asset class that is luring more and more players as demand rises from borrowers seeking safer options amid the chaos set off by the Trump administration's trade policies. Among attractions is higher management fees.
Rival Standard Chartered said on Thursday that it would be hiring about 25 bankers for a new private markets-focused team, estimating that the sector's assets under management will reach nearly US$20 trillion by 2029.
Under HSBC's new set-up, the bank's financing solutions units, which includes its debt capital markets, leveraged and acquisition finance, and private credit operations, will sit alongside its corporate finance and strategic advisory businesses.
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Adam Bagshaw, global head of investment banking, will take charge of CMA with a mandate to grow the lender's private credit business, as well as consolidating its position as one of the leading finance businesses in Asia and the Middle East.
The latest round of restructuring comes on the back of a sweeping overhaul announced late last year by chief executive officer Georges Elhedery shortly after he took the top role. The previous move, involving commercial and investment banking units, saw the shuttering of the lender's mergers and acquisition and equity underwriting operations in the US, UK and continental Europe and the exit of several senior executives. HSBC is looking to save about US$1.5 billion in efficiency costs from those changes.
The reorganisation of the capital markets and advisory businesses marks one of the final steps in the restructuring Elhedery kicked off and sets the stage for potential hiring once things have settled down, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Any hiring would likely focus on private credit, as well as the Middle East and Asia, which are set to benefit from the redeployment of people and resources in the wake of the closure of some of HSBC's operations.
Ian Dorrington, global head of leveraged and acquisition finance at HSBC, will spearhead the private credit push, another person familiar with the situation said. New York-based Dorrington joined HSBC in 2023 from Deutsche Bank where he had been co-head of its US leveraged finance business. BLOOMBERG
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- Straits Times
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Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Police officers directing traffic outside the Tesla showroom ahead of its opening in Mumbai, India, on July 15. – As growth in electric car (EV) sales slows down in the US and Europe, competition is accelerating in India's nascent electric car market with the entry of billionaire Elon Musk's Tesla and Asian carmakers such as Vietnam's VinFast and China's Leapmotor. India is the world's third-largest car market in terms of domestic vehicle sales, and it is predicted to overtake US and China to become the largest by 2030. The government hopes that electric cars will make up 30 per cent of total car sales by then, up from a mere 2.5 per cent out of the 4.3 million cars sold in 2024. But India is also a challenging market with price-conscious consumers, limited charging infrastructure, difficult road conditions, and high import duties on foreign cars. 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Straits Times
an hour ago
- Straits Times
As global supply chains shift, China's exports of factory robots see a sharp rise
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox – As new factories spring up in South-east Asia and elsewhere in a global rejig of supply chains, made-in-China robots that staff production lines and handle logistics are rolling out with them. Shipments of factory robots from China – including robots produced there by foreign manufacturers – have risen every year since the Covid-19 pandemic, nearly tripling in value from 2020 to reach US$1.13 billion (S$1.45 billion) in 2024. Exports for the first half of 2025 hit US$746 million, a year-on-year growth of almost 60 per cent, according to figures from China's General Administration of Customs. The top three destinations were Vietnam, Mexico and Thailand, The Straits Times' calculations show . 'The sharp rise in shipments (to these countries) underscores the ongoing shift of manufacturing capacity away from the mainland,' said Dr Dan Wang, China director at consultancy Eurasia Group in Singapore. 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Straits Times
5 hours ago
- Straits Times
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Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Few analysts believe the Russian leader will be content to stop the war based on a real estate negotiation alone. – In late July 2025, President Vladimir Putin of Russia was facing a stark reality: He was on the verge of losing President Donald Trump, the one Western leader possibly willing to help him get his way in Ukraine and achieve his long-held goal of rupturing the European security order. After months of trying to get Mr Putin to end the war, MrTrump had grown tired of ineffectual phone calls and talks and had begun issuing ultimatums. Even worse for Mr Putin, Mr Trump appeared to have patched up his relationship with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine, despite an Oval Office blow-up earlier in 2025 , that delighted Moscow. It was not clear that Mr Trump would be able or willing to follow through on the threats he had made to put punishing tariffs on nations buying Russian oil , or what real impact such moves would have on Moscow. But Mr Trump's deadline for Mr Putin to end the war was swiftly approaching, presaging some sort of further rift between the White House and the Kremlin. So Mr Putin shifted tack ever so slightly. Despite previous refusals by Russian officials to negotiate over territory in the Russia-Ukraine war, the Russian leader, during a meeting at the Kremlin last week, left Mr Trump's special envoy, Mr Steve Witkoff, with the impression that Russia was now willing to engage in some deal-making on the question of land. 'We're going to get some back and we're going to get some switched,' Mr Trump said on Aug 8. 'There'll be some swopping of territories to the betterment of both.' By speaking a language Mr Trump understands – the language of real estate – Mr Putin secured something he had been seeking ever since January: A one-on-one meeting with the US leader, without Mr Zelensky present, to make his case and cut a deal. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Four men arrested in Bukit Timah believed to be linked to housebreaking syndicates Singapore Criminal trial of Hyflux founder Olivia Lum and five others starts Aug 11 Singapore Profile of Kpod user has shifted from hardcore drug users to young people: Experts Tech Former data analyst creates AI tutor that assesses students based on Singapore schools' criteria Opinion I used to be impatient. Then I became a granddad Life Pixar film-maker, We Bare Bears creator Daniel Chong on the lessons his S'porean parents taught him Opinion Recognising our imperfections is part of what makes Singapore whole Business The risks of using 'decoupling' to own two properties 'It has been a very good week for Putin,' said Dr Sam Greene, a professor of Russian politics at Kings College London. 'He has taken himself out of a position of significant vulnerability. He has manoeuvred this entire process into something that is more or less exactly what he needed it to be.' At the same time, tensions between Washington and Kyiv have reappeared. Mr Zelensky said on Aug 9 that the Ukrainian Constitution does not allow his government to negotiate away the country's land. Mr Trump initially told European officials that the meeting with Mr Putin would be followed by a three-way summit with both Mr Putin and Mr Zelensky. But the Kremlin quickly said no such promise had been made. The White House proceeded anyway. Few analysts believe the Russian leader will be content to stop the war based on a real estate negotiation alone. Mr Putin has made it clear that, among other things, he wants a formal promise that Ukraine will not enter Nato or any other Western military alliances, host Western troops on its territory or be allowed to build up a military that threatens Russia – making Ukraine perpetually vulnerable. 'The fundamental thing for Russia is domination,' Dr Greene said. Mr Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin, said Mr Putin would come into the summit on Aug 15 in Alaska pursuing various scenarios. They include a favourable deal with Mr Trump that the US President successfully forces upon Ukraine or a favourable deal with Mr Trump that Mr Zelensky refuses, causing the United States to walk away from Ukraine, Mr Gabuev said. The third option, he noted, is that the Russian leader continues his current path for another 12 to 18 months, with the expectation that Ukraine will run out of soldiers faster than the Russian war economy runs out of steam. Mr Putin understands that Mr Trump is willing to offer things few other American leaders would ever consider, which could help Russia fracture Ukraine and divide the Western alliance. 'If you could get Trump to recognise Russia's claim to the lion's share of the territory that it has taken, understanding that the Ukrainians and the Europeans might not come along for the ride on that, you drive a long-term wedge between the US and Europe,' Dr Greene said. But despite wanting those things, Mr Putin will not stop the war for them, if getting them means agreeing to a sovereign Ukraine with a strong military, aligned with the West, that is able to make its own arms, Mr Gabuev said. 'Trump is a big opportunity for him,' Mr Gabuev said. 'I think that he understands that. But at the same time, he is not ready to pay the price of Ukraine slipping away forever.' Mr Stefan Meister, a Russia analyst at the German Council on Foreign Relations, said the two leaders would come into the summit with different goals – Mr Trump's being to end the war and Mr Putin's being a strategic repositioning of Russia. 'For Putin, it's really about bigger goals,' Mr Meister added. 'It is about his legacy. It is about where Russia will stand after this war. It is much more fundamental. This creates a different willingness to pay costs.' And despite negotiations about his country's land, Mr Zelensky will not be in the room. 'For Ukraine, it is a disaster,' Mr Meister said. THE NEW YORK TIMES
