HSBC's Quarterly Profit Falls, Partly on Losses Related to Argentina Business Sale

By Kosaku Narioka

HSBC posted a drop in first-quarter net profit due partly to lower net interest income, higher credit costs and one-off losses related to its plan to sell its Argentina business.

The London-based bank said net profit fell 1.4% to $10.18 billion for the three months ended March. Quarterly net profit beat the estimate of $9.73 billion in a poll of analysts by Visible Alpha.

Net interest income fell to $8.65 billion from $8.96 billion.

Quarterly net profit was nonetheless an improvement from net loss in the final quarter of 2023, when HSBC wrote down the value of its stake in major Chinese lender Bank of Communications by $3 billion, in part because of a slowdown in China's economic growth.

The bottom line in the year-earlier period was buoyed by one-off gains related to the sale of its retail banking operations in France and the acquisition of Silicon Valley Bank's U.K. unit.

Write to Kosaku Narioka at kosaku.narioka@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 30, 2024 00:40 ET (04:40 GMT)

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