HSBC kicks off informal investor talks on Indonesian corporate IPO

HONG KONG, Sept 30 (Reuters) – HSBC Holdings plc has started pitching investors about a potential initial public offering (IPO) of its Indonesian business, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.

Since last week, HSBC Indonesia executives have met with a group of fund managers in Singapore to discuss details of a potential IPO before an official roadshow, the sources said. The timetable for the roadshow is unclear.

The size of the deal has yet to be determined and will depend on market conditions because information related to the planned IPO has not been made public, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

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HSBC declined to comment on the deal.

In 2009, HSBC acquired Bank Ekonomi Raharja, an Indonesian bank with operations across the country. It merged with HSBC Indonesia, the UK bank’s existing local arm, in 2017.

The IPO was primarily to fulfill regulatory commitments made by HSBC following its delisting following Ekonomi Raharja’s acquisition and integration with the local HSBC business.

The Indonesian IPO, if materialized, will come as London-based HSBC continues to push ahead with its expansion in Asia, which accounts for the bulk of its revenue and profits.

The IPO will also face pressure on HSBC from its largest shareholder, China Ping An Insurance Group (601318.SS), to explore options including listing its Asian operations to boost shareholder returns.

HSBC will decide in the coming weeks whether to launch an IPO by the end of 2022, one of the sources said.

Global IPO sales fell 65.8% in the first nine months of 2022 to $104.85 billion from $306.8 billion in 2021, according to Refinitiv data, as geopolitical risks, high inflation and rising interest rates dampened investor appetite .

In Southeast Asia, IPOs raised a total of $6.5 billion in the past nine months, down from $10 billion a year earlier, the data showed.

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

Our Standard: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Scott Murdoch

Thomson Reuters

Scott Murdoch has been a journalist for over two decades at Thomson Reuters and News Corp in Australia. He has spent most of his career focusing on financial news and covering Asia’s equity and debt capital markets from Hong Kong.

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