HSBC Holdings (LON: HSBA) PLC reported on Monday a profit increase of 5% in the first half of the year and announced the third reverse buy-back program for the last year, indicating further progress in implementing the six-year financial recovery plan for the largest bank in Europe.
According to HSBC, pre-tax profits for the six months ended June increased to $ 10.2 billion from $ 9.7 billion in the same period a year earlier. Analysts, on average, predicted the figure at $ 9.5 billion.
HSBC also announced that it is going to buy back its own shares for up to $ 2 billion. In April, the bank completed a share repurchase program worth $ 1 billion, which was announced earlier.
The bank said it plans to begin buying back its securities in the near future in order to complete it in the second half of the year.
Thus, the total amount of the redeemed shares of HSBC from the second half of 2016 will be $ 5.5 billion.
"In the past 12 months, we paid more in dividends than any other European or American bank, and has returned $ 3.5 billion to shareholders through a share buy-back," HSBC chief Stuart Gulliver said.
According to the bank, the first-tier base capital ratio - the company's financial stability indicator - was 14.7% by the end of June, compared with 14.3% three months earlier and 12.1% for the same period of the previous year.
The total amount of dividends HSBC in 2016 was $ 10.1 billion, in 2015 - $ 10 billion, and in 2014 - $ 9.6 billion.
The bank, which receives more than half of its profits in Asian countries, mainly in Hong Kong and China, said that pre-tax profits in this region increased by 7% in the first half of the year. This was largely contributed to the growth of revenues from private capital management and insurance in Hong Kong.
"We continue to shift the group's business towards Asia, relying on improving its financial performance and attracting a large number of customers in this region since June 2015," Gulliver said.