Profit before tax was up 10% to US$14.1bn on a reported basis.
• Underlying profit before tax was up 47% to US$13.1bn.
• Return on average ordinary shareholders’ equity was 12.0%, up from 10.5% in the first half of 2012.
• We continued to make progress on delivering our strategy and grew revenues in key areas including in our Financing and Equity Capital Markets and Credit businesses, in residential mortgages in our home markets of Hong Kong and the UK, and from collaboration between our global businesses.
• We achieved additional sustainable cost savings of US$0.8bn, taking annualised savings to US$4.1bn since 2011, exceeding our target for the end of 2013.
• We continued to reshape the business, announcing 11 disposals and closures of non-strategic businesses since the start of the year.
• Core tier 1 capital ratio increased during the period from 12.3% at the end of 2012 to 12.7%.
