HONG KONG, July 30, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Banking giant HSBC said Wednesday that pre-tax profit in the first six months of 2025 fell more than 26 percent to US$15.8 billion, but said it was "well positioned" to deal with the effects of US tariffs.

"In the first half, we continued to execute our strategy with discipline and each of our four businesses sustained momentum in their earnings with each growing revenue," chief executive Georges Elhedery said in a Hong Kong stock exchange filing.

The bank announced a second interim dividend of $0.1 per share and another share buyback of up to US$3 billion.

"In total, we have announced US$9.5 billion in returns to our shareholders through dividends and share buybacks in the first half of 2025," Elhedery said.

He added that HSBC is "making positive progress" in its structural shakeup and cost-cutting, which began in October.

HSBC said the US$5.7 billion drop in first-half pre-tax profit was "primarily due to the recognition of dilution and impairment losses of US$2.1 billion" related to China's Bank of Communications.

First-half revenue declined nine percent to US$34.1 billion.

The London-headquartered bank generates most of its revenue in Asia and has spent several years pivoting to the region, vowing to develop its wealth business and target fast-growing markets.

Elhedery said HSBC is "well positioned to manage the changes and uncertainties prevalent within the global environment in which we operate, including in relation to tariffs".

"While we would expect the direct impact from tariffs to have a relatively modest impact on our revenue, the broader macroeconomic deterioration may see (return on tangible equity) excluding notable items fall outside of our mid-teens targeted range in future years," he said.