At the beginning of the year, HSBC seemed a prime target for shareholder activism. The banking group, which had grown into the world’s fourth-largest financial institution through a series of audacious acquisitions, seemed to have lost its way.

HSBC had just issued the first profits warning in its modern history, the result of a foolish bet on US sub-prime mortgages that had prompted investors to question the bank’s strategy and its ability to manage far-flung operations.