March 2, 2008 Activist tells HSBC: drop US division John Waples and Iain Dey THE shareholder activist Knight Vinke has presented Stephen Green, chairman of HSBC, with four options to sever ties with HFC, its troubled American banking business. The proposals have been made in a series of private meetings between Eric Knight, who heads the activist-investor group, and Green, ahead of HSBC’s full-year results, which are due to be published tomorrow. These results will show record profits of $24 billion (£12 billion) for HSBC, but they will be scarred by the bank’s huge exposure to America’s sub-prime mortgage crisis....