HSBC Holdings Chairman Stephen Green said the London-based bank would consider buying the “right” assets of Citigroup, as the US bank faces the threat of a breakup or sale. “It would depend,” Green said in an interview at the Confederation of British Industry conference in London on Monday.
“We have a clear strategy to develop our business with a primary focus on emerging markets, and that means Asia, the Middle East and Latin America,” he said. “We will not acquire things that do not fit in with our strategy. Where something fits” HSBC would look at it, he added.
HSBC, which earns more than three quarter of its profit in emerging markets, has avoided the funding strain that’s led banks including HBOS Plc to be bailed out by the UK taxpayer. Citigroup on Monday received $306 billion of guarantees for troubled mortgages and toxic assets from the US government to stabilise the bank.
