HSBC Holdings Plc is struggling to show significant revenue growth, Bloomberg reports. It looks like long-term bet of the bank on Asia is not working yet.

On Monday HSBC informed about revenue growth by 2% in the second quarter compared with last year to $13,7 billion, which is lower than estimates of economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Meanwhile, costs grew by 7% to 8,1 billion, as company’s management increased investments in such areas as technology.

John Flint appointed as bank’s CEO in February announced plans on expanding in Asian markets, including China, and strengthening positions in wealth management sector.

HSBC shares lost 9% this year, as investors doubted that revenues will be growing faster than spending on new strategy implementation.

However, Asian region accounted for two thirds of pretax profit in the first half. As a whole, profit grew to $6,11 billion, which is slightly higher than $6,05 billion estimates of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Lending grew by 3% compared with first quarter to $26 billion. Common equity Tier 1 capital ratio rose to 14,2%.