Published: January 21, 2014
Divestment is latest in long-term strategy to improve profitability.
HSBC Bank Middle East has announced the sale of its Jordanian business to Arab Jordan Investment Bank (AJIB). All employees, with a handful of exceptions, will transfer to AJIB, according to a filing with the London Stock Exchange.
The transaction is expected to close during the first half of 2014, pending regulatory approvals.
“We assess [our businesses] in six areas that reflect our group strategy: connectivity, economic development, profitability, efficiency, liquidity plus financial crime risk, which we added last year,” a spokesperson for HSBC Middle East told EMEA Finance. “With this framework we made a decision whether to invest in, restructure, continue or exit a country or business. This sums up our rationale.”
Since May 2011 HSBC has divested a raft of assets globally in an effort to improve profitability. In June 2012 it merged its Omani operations with Oman International Bank and as of October 2013 it had stopped offering wealth-management services in Jordan, Bahrain and Lebanon.