Household HSBC Watch

HSBC Finance signs unsuspecting persons to home loans, only to foreclose and own the property. Is the same logic applied to HSBC Towers? Spanish ownership of the £1.1bn HSBC Tower is under threat after it emerged the owners were struggling to meet a deadline to refinance debt on the building. Metrovacesa, the Spanish property group that bought the tower from HSBC for £1.1bn last year, is believed to be struggling to raise the extra equity to refinance the £810m short-term loan HSBC underwrote to finance the deal. Will HSBC help them? A bailout, along the lines of subprime bailouts in the United States?

Our feelings are that HSBC will come up with some last-minute rescue, while hoping that goodwill and possibly a larger profit in the future will make HSBC look like a white knight instead of the devil himself. Why not? The same theory applies in the United States thanks to HSBC Finance, formerly known as predatory lender Household International. As my father used to say, look carefully at those you trust to see what kind of game they are really playing.