My bet that HSBC (and Standard Chartered) [1] were weathering the crisis better than other UK banks has taken another knock, with the FT revealing today HSBC’s plans to raise £12 billion [2] to shore up its finances.
The bad news has long been expected, and the is price down 45% since October 2008. (To think that at the start of the credit crisis, pundits argued rights issues for banks were good, prudent news for shareholders!)
That the rumour has been expected for a few months doesn’t help me, as I bought back in October. And it doesn’t make me feel any better about losing money [3]!
(Still wonder why I keep stressing I’m just another private investor [4], rather than some sort of guru?)
Bankers!
I’ve plenty to say about the record losses revealed by the new Lloyds, RBS and also about Fred Goodwin’s pension, but the situation on the ground is changing so fast it’s almost impossible to catch up before events lurch away again.
Suffice to say Is still think if any banks will survive in the UK, then HSBC and Standard Chartered will – and that the Government leaning on Northern Rock this week showed again the dangers for the state-owned institutions.
But boy it’s going to continue to be a bumpy ride.
With hindsight it would clearly have been better to stay out of banks after I wrote this post on Barclays [5].