HSBC kicks off informal investor talks for Indonesian business IPO – sources

By Kane Wu and Scott Murdoch

HONG KONG (Reuters) – HSBC Holdings Plc has started briefing investors on a potential initial public offering (IPO) of its Indonesian business, said two sources with direct knowledge of the matter.

Executives at HSBC Indonesia have met with a group of fund managers in Singapore since last week to discuss details of the potential IPO, ahead of an official roadshow, the sources said. The timeline of the roadshow is not yet known.

The size of the deal has yet to be determined, and will be dependent on market conditions, said the sources, who declined to be named as the information related to the planned IPO was not yet made public.

HSBC declined to comment on the deal.

In 2009, HSBC acquired Bank Ekonomi Raharja, an Indonesian bank with a presence across the country. This was merged in 2017 with HSBC Indonesia, the existing local arm of the British bank.

The IPO is mainly to meet a regulatory commitment HSBC made after delisting Ekonomi Raharja following its acquisition and integration with the local HSBC business.

The Indonesian IPO, if materialises, will come against the backdrop of London-headquartered HSBC continuing to push ahead with its expansion in Asia, which accounts for bulk of its revenues and profits.

The IPO would also come as HSBC faces pressure from China’s Ping An Insurance Group, its No.1 shareholder, to explore options including listing its Asia business to boost shareholder returns.

HSBC will decide whether an IPO will be launched before the end of 2022 in the next few weeks, one of the sources said.

New share sales globally dropped 65.8% in the first nine months of 2022, based on Refinitiv data, from $306.8 billion in 2021 to $104.85 billion, as geopolitical risks and high inflation and rising interest rates have hit investor appetite.

In Southeast Asia, IPO proceeds totalled $6.5 billion in the past nine months, down from $10 billion in the same period last year, the data showed.

(Reporting by Kane Wu and Scott Murdoch in Hong Kong; Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee and Jane Merriman)

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