DUBAI: HSBC Holdings is reviewing its operations in Iraq while continuing to invest in Egypt despite a challenging near-term environment there, the bank’s regional chief executive said yesterday.
“In terms of Iraq, it’s a market that we will continue to review,” Simon Cooper, chief executive for the Middle East and North Africa, told reporters at a media event in Dubai. He did not elaborate.
HSBC operates in Iraq through a 70 percent holding in Dar Es Salaam Investment Bank. The lender’s presence in Iraq has been the subject of speculation in recent months. It had been due to be a bookrunner on a $1.35bn initial share sale of telecom firm Asiacell but its name was absence from the deal when it took place in January.
Iraq’s security and political situation has put off many international banks, although some Middle Eastern lenders have operations there, including Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank and Qatar National Bank. Its banking sector is also dominated by two state-owned lenders - Rafidian and Rashid.
HSBC is in the last year of a three-year restructuring plan under Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver. It has closed or sold 47 businesses and cut 38,000 jobs around the world in an attempt to reduce costs and improve profitability.
Cooper said that Egypt was experiencing a number of “bumps in the road” as it transitioned to democracy but that the bank was continuing to invest in the country, pointing to a couple of branch openings in the first quarter of 2013.Reuters
