Trinkaus & Burkhardt Q1 2006

HSBC Holdings PLC
15 May 2006

The following text is the English translation of a news release issued in 
Germany by HSBC Holdings plc's 78.603 per cent-owned subsidiary.

              HSBC TRINKAUS & BURKHARDT FIRST QUARTER 2006 RESULTS

   • Profit after tax increased to EUR32.1 million in the first quarter of
    2006 compared to EUR19.5 million in the first quarter of 2005, an increase
    of 64.6 per cent.

   • Operating profit increased to EUR52.2 million in the first quarter of
    2006 compared to EUR26.8 million in the first quarter of 2005, an increase
    of 94.8 per cent.

   • Net fee income increased to EUR72.9 million in the first quarter of
    2006, an increase of 18.7 per cent compared to the first quarter of 2005.

HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt has had a strong start to 2006. Compared to the first
quarter of 2005, profit after tax increased by 64.6 per cent to EUR32.1 million
and operating profit increased by 94.8 per cent from EUR26.8 million to 
EUR52.2 million.

All business segments experienced a positive market environment in the first
quarter of 2006. Trading performance in equities, equity- and index-derivatives
and fixed-income and fixed income derivatives was particularly strong.

Corporate and institutional clients also benefitted from close co-operation
between HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt and the HSBC Group, particularly the broad
product range which HSBC gives HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt access to. The Private
Banking business experienced strong growth in assets under management.

The most important element of the bank's success in the first quarter of 2006
was that net fee income increased by 18.7 per cent to EUR72.9 million compared
to the same period in 2005. Significant revenue growth was also achieved in
foreign exchange and derivatives. Higher revenue commissions in the securities
business and in asset management led to an increase in the bank's fee income
from securities. Net interest income remains strong at EUR16.8 million in the
first quarter of 2006 compared to EUR16.5million in the first quarter of 2005.
Interest income from financial investments decreased because of maturing
high-yield bonds which were partially replaced by lower yielding securities.
This was compensated for by higher deposit volumes, especially from our
institutional clients, which were mostly invested in the interbank market.

Compared to the first quarter of 2005, trading profit has more than doubled in
the first quarter of 2006 from EUR16.4 million to EUR36.7 million. This
encouraging trend was driven by the equity and equity-/index-certificates
business, which once again delivered the highest contribution to result. This
result was also driven by the fixed-income and fixed-income-derivatives
business.

The bank continued its conservative attitude toward the assessment of credit
risk on new exposures and this, combined with effective risk management of
existing credit relationships, led to an encouraging performance in risk
provision for the credit business. Provisions dropped to EUR0.1 million during
the first quarter of 2006 compared to EUR0.7 million in the same period of 2005.

Due to higher performance-related remuneration, salaries and wages increased
notably in the first quarter of 2006, even when taking into account the partial
decline caused by the shift of staff to our subsidiary for securities services -
International Transaction Services GmbH. This unit was founded in 2005. Other
administrative expenses have increased, largely due to higher IT costs, as the
bank pursued its successful growth strategy. On the other hand, depreciation has
decreased due to the sale of the securities service platform GEOS to ITS.
Overall, these effects led to a decrease in the bank's cost income ratio from
68.9 per cent during the first quarter of 2005 to 57.5 per cent in the first
quarter of 2006.

The managing partners remain optimistic about the bank's performance in 2006.
Successful acquisition of new customers has broadened and steadied the revenue
base, a phenomenon which is most evident in the increase of net fee income in
the first quarter of 2006. However, net fee income and, especially, trading
profits remain highly dependent on the continued strength of capital markets.
Nevertheless, the managing partners continue to pursue the goal of increasing
significantly the bank's operating profit during 2006.

Duesseldorf, May 2006





                      This information is provided by RNS
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange