London, May 2 (IANS): Banking giant HSBC said that its profits got a $1.5 billion boost from the purchase of collapsed Silicon Valley Bank's (SVB) British business (SVB UK).

Europe's biggest bank posted a pre-tax profit of $12.9 billion for the three months to the end of March, the BBC reported.

That is more than three times the amount it made for the same time last year.

In March, HSBC bought SVB UK for a nominal 1 pound ($1.25), in a deal led by the government and the Bank of England.

The London-headquartered lender said the profit included a "provisional gain of $1.5 billion on the acquisition of Silicon Valley Bank UK Limited".

"We remain focused on continuing to improve our performance and maintaining tight cost discipline, but we also saw an opportunity to invest in SVB UK to accelerate our growth plans," group chief executive Noel Quinn said.

The bank also got a boost from the reversal of its plan to write-off $2.1 billion due to the sale of its French business, as that deal may no longer be completed.

HSBC announced its first quarterly payout to shareholders since before the pandemic in 2019 and said it would buy back $2 billion of its shares.

It also said the completion of the sale of its business in Canada is likely to be delayed.

The planned $10 billion sale, which was originally expected to be completed by the end of this year, is now likely to go through early next year, the BBC reported.