London: HSBC Holdings Plc, Europe's biggest bank, ended two-and-a-half weeks of speculation on Friday about who would succeed Stephen Green as chairman by replacing all three of its most senior executives.
Michael Geoghegan, chief executive for the past four years, will step down after missing out on the chairmanship. He will be replaced by investment banking chief Stuart Gulliver.
Green, who quit on September 7 to become UK trade minister, will be replaced by finance director Douglas Flint. Iain MacKay, an executive in the bank's Asia-Pacific unit, will fill Flint's job, HSBC said.
No support
The shakeup, the bank's biggest for decades, follows a struggle over who would replace Green as chairman. Geoghegan, who became CEO when Green was promoted, struggled to attract investor support for the chairmanship. In a Bloomberg survey of 20 HSBC shareholders this week, not one backed him. HSBC's chairmen have been former CEOs for at least the past 33 years.
"It's been historically that the chief executive goes on to be chairman — but you have to be asked," Geoghegan told reporters.
"The reality was I wasn't asked. I was told I was a very good chief executive, and another person would be better as chairman."
Geoghegan increased his executive powers in February when he moved to Hong Kong to sharpen HSBC's focus on Asia.
"HSBC is losing its chairman and chief executive within weeks of each other in an unplanned way, which is not a good thing," said Mike Trippitt, an analyst at Oriel Securities Ltd in London, who has an "add" rating on the stock.
