HSBC 2012 Annual Report Download - page 102

HSBC HOLDINGS PLC
Report of the Directors: Operating and Financial Review (continued)
Geographical regions > Middle East and North Africa
100
Profit/(loss) before tax by country within global businesses
Retail
Banking
and Wealth
Management
US$m
Commercial
Banking
US$m
Global
Banking
and
Markets
US$m
Global
Private
Banking
US$m
Other
US$m
Total
US$m
2012
Egypt .................................................... 67 71 157 – (5) 290
Qatar .................................................... 9 36 84 – – 129
United Arab Emirates .......................... 143 235 141 1 (56) 464
Other .................................................... (27) 125 29 – (37) 90
MENA (excluding Saudi Arabia) ........ 192 467 411 1 (98) 973
Saudi Arabia ........................................ 60 120 170 9 18 377
252 587 581 10 (80) 1,350
2011
Egypt .................................................... 43 55 129 – (2) 225
Qatar .................................................... (4) 35 81 – – 112
United Arab Emirates .......................... 134 240 200 (6) 7 575
Other .................................................... 17 109 93 – – 219
MENA (excluding Saudi Arabia) ........ 190 439 503 (6) 5 1,131
Saudi Arabia ........................................ 57 98 140 4 62 361
247 537 643 (2) 67 1,492
2010
Egypt .................................................... 38 82 77 – (2) 195
Qatar .................................................... 19 52 67 – – 138
United Arab Emirates .......................... 17 186 121 1 (1) 324
Other .................................................... 19 57 (19) – – 57
MENA (excluding Saudi Arabia) ........ 93 377 246 1 (3) 714
Saudi Arabia ........................................ 25 107 53 (16) 9 178
118 484 299 (15) 6 892
During 2012, we focused on simplifying our
operations in the Middle East and North Africa by
disposing of non-strategic businesses and continuing
to improve our organisational efficiency while
investing in strategic acquisitions.
We made significant progress in integrating
our operations in Oman with OIB following the
merger in June 2012. The combined entity, HSBC
Bank Oman S.A.O.G., of which we own 51%, is
now the third largest bank in the Sultanate. We also
completed the acquisition of the onshore retail and
commercial banking business of Lloyds Banking
Group in the UAE in the fourth quarter of 2012.
Lloyds’ strong presence in expatriate retail banking
and commercial banking was a good strategic fit
with our position as the leading international bank in
the UAE. We also completed the disposal of 80.1%
of our Private Equity business in December. We
announced in September our agreement to sell our
operations in Pakistan and, in October, the
restructuring of our Amanah business in the region
outside Saudi Arabia.
We remained focused on our priority markets,
delivering profit growth in Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
The strong performance in Egypt was driven by
robust deposit growth in RBWM which led to higher
net interest income. We also achieved growth in
profits from our associates, mainly The Saudi British
Bank, which won the Euromoney award for
excellence as ‘The Best Bank in Saudi Arabia’ and
‘The Best Debt House in Saudi Arabia’. Although
profit before tax declined in the UAE as a result of
the impairments in GB&M noted above, it remains a
priority market for HSBC and the economy
continued to improve in 2012.
Delivery of sustainable cost savings remained
a priority for 2012. Our organisational effectiveness
initiatives included streamlining procedures by
delayering our management structure and
transferring additional operational processes to
our global service centres. We realised about
US$70m in sustainable savings from our
organisational effectiveness programmes.
In RBWM, we remained focused on growing
Wealth Management revenues. We entered into a
strategic alliance with Zurich Life International
(‘Zurich’) in 2012 to provide wealth and general
insurance products to our customers in the region.
Our focus on foreign exchange resulted in increased
transaction volumes, which provided us with higher