HSBC 2003 Annual Report Download - page 22

HSBC HOLDINGS PLC
Description of Business (continued)
20
offering small and medium-sized enterprises
one-stop financial services to facilitate their
business growth.
• Hang Seng Bank opened its first branch in the
Macau SAR in December 2003 to serve the
trade finance needs of its customers with
business operations there.
Corporate, Investment Banking and Markets
• HSBC increased its market share in G3 and local
currency bond issuance in the Hong Kong
market from 33 per cent in 2002 to 45 per cent
in 2003, with 249 issues totalling US$11 billion.
It was named Best Hong Kong Bond House by
IFR.
• HSBC was a joint bookrunner on Hutchison
Whampoa’s US$5 billion global bond issue, the
largest bond issue in Asia to date.
• The debt finance group set up Cheung Kong’s
HK$10 billion (US$1.3 billion) retail bond
programme and led Hong Kong’s largest retail
bond to date, for Kowloon-Canton Railway
Corporation.
• The securitisation team led the industry’s first
securitisation of taxi and public light bus loans
and the first synthetic securitisation of non-
mortgage consumer and small and medium-sized
enterprise (‘SME’) obligors in Hong Kong and
the rest of Asia-Pacific.
• The equity capital markets team executed equity
placements amounting to US$576 million.
• HSBC Asset Management celebrated its 30th
anniversary on 4 September 2003, with the
theme ‘Your Advantage in Investment In Asia
and Around the World’ , highlighting its
commitment to providing investment solutions
and delivering results.
• By the end of 2003, HSBC Asset Management
had launched 14 capital guaranteed funds,
covering a wide range of sector and country
themes, with US$3.5 billion in assets at the year-
end, which represented more than 80 per cent of
the guaranteed fund market in Hong Kong.
Private Banking
• HSBC Private Bank was named the Best Private
Bank in Hong Kong in 2003 by Euromoney.
• HSBC Private Bank continued to expand its
family office capabilities with the relaunch of its
tax consulting service as Wealth and Tax
Advisory Services (‘WTAS’) (Asia) Limited.
• In October 2003, HSBC and Hang Seng Bank
launched one-stop private banking services to
cater to the needs of applicants to the Hong
Kong Government’s Capital Investment Entrant
Scheme.
Rest of Asia-Pacific (including the Middle East)
The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation
offers personal, commercial, corporate and
investment banking and markets services in
mainland China. The bank’s network spans 11 major
cities, comprising nine branches and two
representative offices. Hang Seng Bank offers
personal and commercial banking services and
operates five branches, a sub-branch, and two
representative offices in seven cities.
Outside Hong Kong and mainland China, the
HSBC Group conducts business in the Asia-Pacific
region primarily through branches and subsidiaries
of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking
Corporation, with particularly strong coverage in
India, Indonesia, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and
Thailand. HSBC’s presence in the Middle East is led
by HSBC Bank Middle East Limited, the largest
foreign-owned bank in the region; in Australia by
HSBC Bank Australia Limited; and in Malaysia by
HSBC Bank Malaysia Berhad, which has the second
largest presence of any foreign-owned bank in the
country.
General
• In 2003 HSBC celebrated 150 years of doing
business in India.
• HSBC remains committed to the local
communities in which it operates across the
region. With the World Health Organization
declaring the SARS virus contained worldwide
in July, HSBC launched the ‘Shop Asia, Dine
Asia’ programme to stimulate affected
industries. Over 2,500 outlets across
Asia-Pacific joined with HSBC to support the
programme.
• HSBC entered into an agreement to acquire a
14.71 per cent stake in UTI Bank Limited, an
Indian retail bank, for a consideration of