(Yicai Global) May 8 -- The latest shareholders meeting of HSBC has rejected the restructuring plan China’s Ping An Asset Management, the UK banking giant’s second-largest shareholder, had proposed.

HSBC announced on May 5 that Ping An Asset Management’s proposal of spinning off the London-based bank’s Asia Pacific business and returning its dividend yield to the pre-pandemic level failed to receive more than 20 percent of votes in favor during a shareholders meeting held on the same day.

“Being global is how we generate a significant portion of our revenues and is central to our whole strategy,” HSBC’s Chairman Mark Tucker said. “A restructuring or spin-off would mean that we lose this revenue as our bank would no longer have the connectivity which our customers value. It would create a period of uncertainty when our clients, employees, and shareholders would all be negatively impacted and distracted.”

“I’m delighted that the large majority of HSBC’s shareholders have voted overwhelmingly to support the bank’s strategy and draw a line under the debate on the structure of the bank,” Tucker noted.

Ping An Asset Management respects the choice of other HSBC shareholders and recommends the lenders’ board and management team to listen to shareholders’ suggestions with an open mind to continuously improve its operation and management, thus enhancing its value, the Shenzhen-based company told Yicai Global.

At the end of last year, Ping An Asset Management held an about 8 percent stake in HSBC, second only to US private equity giant BlackRock which owned 8.27 percent.

Ping An Asset Management believed that HSBC did not perform well in recent years and suggested the lender should build an Asia-focused bank through a spin-off and provide higher dividend protection for Asian shareholders.

HSBC’s net profit soared 275 percent to USD10.3 billion in the first quarter from a year earlier, according to its latest earnings report released on May 2. The firm also announced the resumption of its first-quarter dividend after three years, with a planned dividend amount of 10 US cents per share.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Futura Costaglione