BREAKING Bob Cole, veteran CBC broadcaster and former voice of 'Hockey Night in Canada,' dead at 90
Bob Cole, legendary CBC broadcaster and former voice of Hockey Night in Canada, has died. He was 90.
HSBC Bank Canada is up for a potential sale as global banking giant HSBC Holdings Plc faces pressure to shake up operations from its largest shareholder.
"We are currently reviewing our strategic options with respect to our wholly owned subsidiary in Canada," Gillian James, senior media relations manager at HSBC, wrote in an email.
"The review is at an early stage and no decisions have been made."
National Bank analyst Gabriel Dechaine said the review of HSBC Bank Canada, the country's seventh largest bank by assets, comes as HSBC faces pressure from Chinese insurer Ping An, its largest shareholder, to break up the bank.
The news has generated "a lot of excitement" he said in an analyst note.
"Considering the rare opportunity to acquire a large Canadian lending institution, we believe every Big-6 bank would evaluate this asset."
HSBC Canada's division has a large commercial banking business, which made up about two-thirds of the $490 million in profit before taxes it pulled in for the first half of 2022.
The bank, while one of HSBC's smaller foreign subsidiaries, was the third largest contributor to HSBC's commercial banking profits in 2021 to make it a "disproportionately profitable business," Dechaine said.
While all of Canada's big banks would likely take a look, he said Royal Bank was the leading candidate as it has the scale to take on what could a more than $10-billion takeover.
Dechaine noted TD Bank Group and BMO are already in the midst of multibillion-dollar takeovers in the U.S., making them less likely to be potential buyers.
Another foreign bank buying the division looks unlikely as European and U.S. banks have had a track record of leaving Canada, while a Chinese buyer would face regulatory challenges, he added.
HSBC has been winding down its exposure in North America. Last year, the bank sold off its U.S. mass market retail division, cutting its branches in the country from 148 to 58.
HSBC Canada has more than 130 branches, with a concentration in British Columbia. Since the bank first established itself in Canada in 1981 it has snapped up more than a dozen banks and trusts in Canada to grow to its current size.
In its latest quarterly filings, HSBC said the Canadian division was helpful as it could leverage its footprint across all key trade corridors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct.4, 2022.
Bob Cole, legendary CBC broadcaster and former voice of Hockey Night in Canada, has died. He was 90.
New York's highest court on Thursday overturned Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction, reversing a landmark ruling of the #MeToo era in determining the trial judge improperly allowed women to testify about allegations against the ex-movie mogul that weren't part of the case.
Honda is set to build an electric vehicle battery plant next to its Alliston, Ont., assembly plant, which it is retooling to produce fully electric vehicles, all part of a $15-billion project that is expected to include up to $5 billion in public money.
MPP Sarah Jama was asked to leave the Legislative Assembly of Ontario by House Speaker Ted Arnott on Thursday for wearing a keffiyeh, a garment that is banned at Queen’s Park.
Researchers are working to better understand if some Canadian military veterans may be suffering from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, also known as CTE -- a disorder previously found in the brains of professional football and hockey players after their death.
Residents of John D'Or Prairie, a community on the Little Red River Cree Nation in northern Alberta, were told to take shelter Thursday morning during a police operation.
During a special winner celebration near their hometown, Doug and Enid shared the story of how they discovered they were holding a Lotto Max ticket worth $70 million and how they kept this huge secret for so long.
A West Virginia father is getting some sense of closure after authorities found the remains of his young daughter and her mother following a deathbed confession from the man believed to have fatally shot them nearly two decades ago.
The first cargo ship passed through a newly opened deep-water channel in Baltimore on Thursday after being stuck in the harbor since the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed four weeks ago, halting most maritime traffic through the city's port.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.