Quotes: HSBC Chief Executive Quinn announces surprise retirement

Quotes: HSBC Chief Executive Quinn announces surprise retirement

(Reuters) – HSBC said on Tuesday its Chief Executive Noel Quinn will retire – a surprise departure by its hard-nosed leader of five years who has overseen a sweeping series of asset sales across the globe.

Following are the reactions to the retirement:

SIMON YUEN, FOUNDER, SURICH ASSET MANAGEMENT, HONG KONG

“Noel had done his best in driving the strategy for the HSBC group. I think shrinking businesses in Western markets such as the U.S., Canada and Europe has been a good move for HSBC at the same time as boosting the group’s Asian business.”

“We do hope that the next CEO would lay out more plans execution-wise to further increase the bank’s businesses in Asian countries. We can see a trend that the concentration of wealthy people has been increasing in Asia and also Middle East. We would expect the next CEO of HSBC to formulate plans to capture the opportunities for those markets in the Middle East, such as Dubai.”

YEAP JUN RONG, MARKET STRATEGIST, IG, SINGAPORE

“The surprise retirement of the HSBC CEO seems to be more of his personal reasons, as compared to any fundamental shift in the business prompting his departure. The announcement comes at a time where the bank has been performing well – HSBC’s latest earnings have beaten market forecasts, outlook remains healthy while delivering additional returns for shareholders in the form of dividends and buybacks.”

“With that, investors may look beyond it eventually as he will still be available to helm the company over the next one year (given his 12-month notice period), which gives ample time for the leadership transition to play out smoothly.”

(Reporting by Scott Murdoch; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)