Bad surprise for employees and customers of the HSBC France banking network. Twenty-two months after the announcement of the sale of its activities to My Money Group (MMG), a subsidiary of the American private equity group Cerberus, HSBC announced on Friday April 14 that it had been informed by “the acquirer” what “significant and unexpected increases in interest rates” returned “less certain” the conclusion of the transaction.
Clearly, MMG believes that the rise in the cost of credit is increasing “significantly” the amount of equity required to complete the transaction, which was expected to close before the end of the year. “Unless this problem is solved”adds HSBC in a press release, the French banking authorities could refuse to give the green light to the operation.
Discussions between the two parties continue and HSBC ensures to remain “engaged” to carry out the project. On the side of HSBC France, it is specified that“it is too early to speculate on any alternative plan”. No question, therefore, of evoking the possible search for another buyer or maintaining the tricolor subsidiary within the group.
But in the meantime, French activities are no longer counted as “held for sale”an accounting classification that assumes a “high probability” sale within a twelve-month horizon. And the group will resume the provision of two billion euros provided to cover the cost of the operation.
HSBC France had 800,000 customers, 244 branches and 3,900 employees when the sale was announced. The latter are now only about 3,600 according to the unions.
“Everything is done” for the project to succeed
The questioning of the project schedule, announced to the Social and Economic Committee (CSE) at the beginning of the afternoon on Friday, then to all the employees in a video message, was obviously surprising, especially since the change in shareholder had begun to materialize. “The project was well under way: the MMG teams had come to present themselves, the first IT switchover tests had generally gone wellexplains Eric Poyet, Force Ouvrière delegate at HSBC France. But today, we can legitimately ask questions: for there to be a sale, both parties must agree. »
For Didier Gens, CFDT delegate, “Management does not want to say that the project has failed but it is compromised under the conditions planned for 2021: the solution for HSBC is to put money back in the pot. If Cerberus was a bank, with deposits, it could fund the takeover. Apparently, the rise in rates changes everything”.
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