HSBC Holdings PLC earned a vote of confidence from shareholders, as a key poll which proposed splitting the bank was rejected at Friday’s annual general meeting.

Largely all votes passed without a hitch, though votes on a director pay report, the re-election of Chair Mark Tucker and the key strategy vote received some fairly sizeable opposition.

Resolution 17, which concerned the strategy review, received the support of just over 80% of shareholders. A vote on its dividend policy received the backing of just under 81%.

‘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. The board, HSBC colleagues and our shareholders can now move forward with the shared objective of focusing on our customers, driving stronger performance, and creating more value for our investors,’ Chair Tucker said.

HSBC had urged shareholders to vote against a proposal to spin-off its Asia business. The proposal was backed by Chinese insurer Ping An Insurance Co of China Ltd, HSBC largest individual shareholder.

In a public statement last month, the insurer cited HSBC’s underperformance against its peers. It also pointed to HSBC’s precarious strategy of straddling East and West amid simmering geopolitical tension between the US and China.

‘Being global is how we generate a significant portion of our revenues and is central to our whole strategy,’ 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 also create a ‘period of uncertainty’ which would hurt or distract its clients, employees and shareholders, Tucker put forward. The costs would also be ‘significant’ for a number of years, he added.

Tucker had also encouraged shareholders to vote down the proposal that would have mandated a fixed dividend, deeming it not a ‘prudent’ practice for banks or companies in general.

A vote to re-elect Tucker, though successful, was opposed by just over 20% of voters, as was a poll to approve the directors’ remuneration report, authorise political donations and for directors to allot shares.

A vote allowing the company to disapply pre-emption rights in relation to the issue of contingent convertible securities and to allow for the right to call general meetings, bar AGMs, on 14 ‘clear’ days’ noticed were rejected by 20% and 23%, respectively.

Contingent convertible securities, or CoCos, are types of debt instruments similar to a convertible bond.

On the votes that received opposition of 20% or more, HSBC said they should be viewed with the ‘context’ of Ping An opposing them.

‘Ping An voted against the board’s recommendations on these resolutions and a number of others. Ping An’s votes account for approximately 18-19% of all votes cast at the AGM based on a turnout of around 50%. This turnout is consistent with prior years,’ HSBC said,

It added that it will engage with shareholders on those resolutions, in accordance with the UK Corporate Governance Code, providing an update within six months.

A vote to re-elect Chief Executive Noel Quinn was opposed by 19%, below the 20% which would require engagement under UK rules.

Earlier this week, the bank revealed strong first-quarter results, with pretax profit more than tripling year-on-year to $12.89 billion, and beating market consensus. It declared its first quarterly dividend since 2019 and a share buyback of up to $2 billion.

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