HSBC shareholder meeting disrupted by climate crisis protests

theguardian.com:

HSBC has become the latest FTSE 100 company to face disruption of its annual shareholder meeting by climate protesters – including some singing reworded versions of Y.M.C.A. by Village People and A Message to You, Rudy by the Specials – as the bank awaited the results of a vote to break up the bank backed by its largest shareholder.

Several protesters interrupted the meeting after 12 minutes, beginning an hour of disruption in which the bank’s chair, Mark Tucker, and chief executive, Noel Quinn, repeatedly stopped speaking until the bank’s security removed the campaigners.

The UK’s biggest bank has come under pressure from campaigners to cut its financing of fossil fuels, but Tucker and Quinn insisted the bank was acting responsibly on climate issues when asked repeatedly by shareholders if they would reduce lending to oil and gas companies. One question came from a resident of the Verde Island Passage, a marine biodiversity hotspot being targeted for fossil fuel investment.

While the meeting was dominated by the climate protests, for the company’s board – who watched stony-faced as protesters were removed – a key outcome of the meeting will be the results, due to be published on Friday afternoon, of the shareholder resolution on breaking up the bank.

The resolution called for HSBC to spin off its Asian operations, after the Chinese insurer Ping An, which owns 8% of the bank, last year said the move would increase value for shareholders.

The resolution was brought by Lui Yu Kin, an individual shareholder from Hong Kong. However, Ping An last month said the resolution and another to restore dividends to pre-Covid levels “have their merits”.

Other shareholders have said they will oppose the resolution. The Norwegian state-owned