‘Never say never’ – APS Bank CEO refuses to shut the door on HSBC bid

APS Bank CEO Marcel Cassar on Thursday (today) refused to definitively close the door on a potential future reopening of negotiations to acquire HSBC Bank.

“Never say never,” he said during a market briefing announcing APS Banks’ 2025Q1 results.

Nonetheless, he also made it clear that “at this point in time, this chapter is closed,” referencing APS Bank’s “regrettable withdrawal” of its bid for HSBC’s Maltese operations.

“If it were to be reopening, it would be in a different environment, under different circumstances,” he said, adding that it would be “premature to speculate” on what those could look like.

At the same meeting, he also revealed that APS Bank has an open invitation for the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) to discuss the “confidential information” that led to the sudden decision to drop its bid, despite spending close to €2 million on due diligence and advisory costs.

Mr Cassar however noted that the money is “not lost, but an investment in the future,” given APS Bank’s continued interest in strategic opportunities.

“We will be actively looking at strategic opportunities,” he said. “The figure of cash and liquidity we have accumulated … it’s quite a warchest” – with its financial statement citing a figure “in excess of €800 million” in cash reserves held with the Central Bank of Malta, loans and advances to banks, and debt and fixed income instruments.

“We will invest it, appropriately and prudently,” said Mr Cassar. “It is part of our strategy going forward.”