* HSBC says 10.2 pct vote against pay plan, 13.7 pct inc
abstentions
* “No” vote down from year ago
* CEO says no plans for big purchases in euro zone, Africa,
global
By Steve Slater and Matt Scuffham
LONDON, May 25 (Reuters) – HSBC said it had no
appetite to take advantage of turmoil in the euro zone and make
big acquisitions there or anywhere else where rivals are
selling major assets.
“We’re good at running our own businesses, we’re not so good
at making acquisitions, so history suggests that we would do
better to run our own firm and focus on that,” said Stuart
Gulliver, chief executive of Europe’s biggest bank.
Gulliver was speaking after the bank’s AGM, where the bank
sidestepped an investor backlash on pay on the scale seen by
some rivals.
It said 10.2 percent of shareholders voted against its pay
plan, above the average for a FTSE 100 firm but down from 18.7
percent last year. Including abstentions, 13.7 percent failed to
back this year’s vote.
“It’s not a vote without significance,” Catherine Howarth, a
private HSBC shareholder, told Reuters. “It’s still sizeable. In
historical terms these are high levels of dissent.”
Continued…
