London / AFP Global banking giant HSBC announced on Monday its results for 2015 which fell below analysts’ expectations after what it called “seismic shifts” in the world economy. The bank said net profit dropped 1.2 percent to $13.52 billion from the previous year. Group chairman Douglas Flint described the performance as “broadly satisfactory” in a statement, although the bank’s …

BLOOMBERG Bank of Ireland plans to return to paying dividends next year for the first time since the financial crisis after profit at the nation’s largest lender by assets rose 30 percent in 2015. Underlying pretax profit, excluding items such as restructuring costs, rose to 1.2 billion euros ($1.33 billion) from 921 million euros a year earlier, the bank said …

Bloomberg Wheelock Properties Ltd. sold a luxury home in Hong Kong’s exclusive Peak neighbourhood to an unidentified buyer for a lower-than-expected price tag of HK$830 million ($107 million). While it took Wheelock just three hours to sell the home, the transaction works out to HK$87,784 per square foot, more than 25 percent lower than estimates by some analysts. The sale …