[LONDON] HSBC Holdings is reorganising its capital markets and corporate advisory units into a new business as part of a plan aimed at helping Europe’s biggest bank grab a larger share of the booming private credit industry.
The London-based lender said in a statement on Friday (May 16) that it was creating a new Capital Markets and Advisory group to house all of its disparate worldwide financing and investment banking activities under a single management structure, confirming an earlier Bloomberg News report.
“This is a model for the future, where we can best serve our clients and capitalise on the growth opportunities ahead,” said Michael Roberts, chief executive of corporate and institutional banking at HSBC.
HSBC is among lenders seeking to step up offerings in private credit, a US$1.6 trillion global asset class that is luring more and more players as demand rises from borrowers seeking safer options amid the chaos set off by the Trump administration’s trade policies. Among attractions is higher management fees.
Rival Standard Chartered said on Thursday that it would be hiring about 25 bankers for a new private markets-focused team, estimating that the sector’s assets under management will reach nearly US$20 trillion by 2029.
Under HSBC’s new set-up, the bank’s financing solutions units, which includes its debt capital markets, leveraged and acquisition finance, and private credit operations, will sit alongside its corporate finance and strategic advisory businesses.
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Adam Bagshaw, global head of investment banking, will take charge of CMA with a mandate to grow the lender’s private credit business, as well as consolidating its position as one of the leading finance businesses in Asia and the Middle East.
The latest round of restructuring comes on the back of a sweeping overhaul announced late last year by chief executive officer Georges Elhedery shortly after he took the top role. The previous move, involving commercial and investment banking units, saw the shuttering of the lender’s mergers and acquisition and equity underwriting operations in the US, UK and continental Europe and the exit of several senior executives. HSBC is looking to save about US$1.5 billion in efficiency costs from those changes.
The reorganisation of the capital markets and advisory businesses marks one of the final steps in the restructuring Elhedery kicked off and sets the stage for potential hiring once things have settled down, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Any hiring would likely focus on private credit, as well as the Middle East and Asia, which are set to benefit from the redeployment of people and resources in the wake of the closure of some of HSBC’s operations.
Ian Dorrington, global head of leveraged and acquisition finance at HSBC, will spearhead the private credit push, another person familiar with the situation said. New York-based Dorrington joined HSBC in 2023 from Deutsche Bank where he had been co-head of its US leveraged finance business. BLOOMBERG
