South Africa: Nedbank eludes HSBC

Nedbank’s Mike Brown: said to have found out from the press that HSBC had withdrawn

It was the event of the year in South African banking. The announcement of HSBC’s $7.3 billion bid for Nedbank in July was greeted with much excitement and clamour. Local bankers talked enthusiastically about a new player in Africa, the diversification of HSBC, a boost for South African banking, the globalization of the South African economy, and so on.

But no sooner had the excitement subsided than 160 HSBC auditors and accountants doing the due diligence into Nedbank were on their way out of Johannesburg, without any such fanfare nor any explanation on their work, their concerns or their findings.