June 2006
Market timing: Transparently stupid
HSBC’s decision to tell the world in advance when it is will carry out a large FX transaction to pay its non-dollar based shareholders their dividends is transparent. But is it wise?
Every quarter, when HSBC announces its interim results, it also declares the size of the dividend in dollars it will pay its shareholders. At the same time, the global banking group details when it will set the exchange rate to convert these dollars into the sterling and Hong Kong dollars that the majority of its shareholders require.
HSBC announced on March 6 that its fourth interim dividend for 2005 would total $0.31 per share. The bank also stated: “The dividend will be payable in cash, in US dollars, sterling or Hong Kong dollars, or a combination of these currencies, at the exchange rates quoted by HSBC Bank plc in London at or about 11 am on May 2, and with a scrip dividend alternative.”
With close to 11.5 billion shares in circulation, the size of the dividend payout was about $3.5 billion. How much of...
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