HSBC share price: New chairman wastes no time in choosing new CEO

HSBC Holdings’ (LON:HSBA) new chairman has wasted no time in choosing a successor to chief executive Stuart Gulliver, the Financial Times has reported. The news comes as Mark Tucker formally replaced Douglas Flint as chairman of Europe’s biggest bank over the weekend.

HSBC’s share price has been little changed in morning trade in London today, having inched 0.08 percent higher to 737.70p as of 08:30 BST, slightly underperforming the broader UK market, with the benchmark FTSE 100 index currently standing 0.31 percent higher at 7,395.93 points. The group’s shares have added more than 27 percent to their value over the past year, and are up by some 12 percent in the year-to-date.

The FT reported that Mark Tucker had already made up his mind about HSBC’s new chief executive and that the Asia-focused lender was now waiting for the Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority to approve its chosen candidate before an announcement can be made. Sources with knowledge of the matter told the newspaper that the lender’s new chairman, the first outsider in HSBC’s 152-year history to be appointed to the position, had opted to stick with tradition by promoting someone from within the bank to the top job.

One of the sources noted that it would be ‘very surprising’ if his choice was anyone other than John Flint, the bank’s head of retail banking and wealth management.

“It’s pretty obvious that it would be an internal candidate, given they have appointed an external chairman,” a top 10 shareholder in the bank told the FT. “It makes sense that it would be him [John Flint].” Other insiders in the frame for the top job reportedly include Iain Mackay, finance director, Samir Assaf, head of its investment bank, and Antonio Simoes, head of HSBC in Europe. 

As of 08:44 BST, Monday, 02 October, HSBC Holdings plc share price is 737.60p.