BUSINESS LIVE: HSBC boss Quin to retire; Whitbread hikes divi; Metro Bank deposits grow

Published on: April 30, 2024

By Live Commentary

Updated: 07:52 BST, 30 April 2024

The FTSE 100 will open at 8am. Among the companies with reports and trading updates today are HSBC, Whitbread, Metro Bank, St. James’s Place and Hargreaves Lansdown. Read the Tuesday 30 April Business Live blog below.

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First profit for Vinted as young shoppers turn their backs on fast fashion

Vinted has turned its first annual profit as it cashes in on young shoppers shunning fast fashion.

The Lithuanian start-up – Europe’s largest website for buying and selling old clothes – made £15.4million last year after a £17million loss in 2022.

Sales surged 61 per cent to £509million after it launched a service to verify high-end brands. Business was also boosted by an expansion into Denmark and Finland last year, and its takeover of design program Rebelle.

HSBC boss Quin to retire

HSBC chief executive Noel Quinn will exit after five transformational years in the role, the lender said on Tuesday as it posted a forecast-beating pre-tax profit of $12.7billion for the first three months of 2024.

Quinn oversaw a sweeping series of asset sales across the globe during his tenure, getting rid of or slashing in size underperforming businesses, including the lender’s retail banking businesses in the US and France, its entire Canadian subsidiary and units in smaller markets such as Argentina.

HSBC’s shares, which have gained roughly 30 per cent during his tenure, were up by about 1.3 per cent and touched a nine-month high in the afternoon session in Hong Kong.

Quinn will remain CEO until his successor starts in the role, and has agreed to remain available through to the end of his 12-month notice period expiring on April 30, 2025, to support the transition.

‘I’ve held intensive leadership roles since I took on a commercial bank role in October 2008 so I’m personally ready for a change,’ Quinn told reporters on a conference call.

‘It’s also a natural inflection point for the bank, as it comes to the end of the current transformation phase. It’s an ideal time to bring in leadership to move the bank forward over the next five years.’

HSBC Chairman Mark Tucker said the bank was aiming to complete Quinn’s succession process by second half of this year.