HONG KONG (Bloomberg) — HSBC Holdings Plc, Europe's biggest bank, may slow dividend growth as losses from its US home-loan operations and other pressures threaten its balance sheet, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said.

"We believe it would be prudent for HSBC to interrupt" its 11 percent yearly growth in dividends, amid a possible US economic slowdown, Roy Ramos, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Goldman, said in a report dated yesterday.

He revised his estimate for HSBC's 2007 dividend to HK$6.30 ($0.81) from HK$7 a share and trimmed this year's forecast to HK$6.69 from HK$7.55. In a January 14 report, Goldman cut its price estimate for HSBC's Hong Kong shares to HK$114 from HK$119 and said the company may need to add $13 billion to its bad loan provisions.

Rising defaults on mortgage loans held by borrowers with poor credit forced banks including Citigroup Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co. to write down the value of related investments. Citigroup, which in the fourth quarter posted the biggest loss in its 196-year history, cut its dividend by 41 percent this week.

David Hall, a Hong Kong-based spokesman with HSBC, declined to comment when contacted yesterday.

Potential losses from $45 billion worth of assets from HSBC's structured investment vehicles, plus new assets from its acquisitions of Korea Exchange Bank and The Chinese Bank of Taiwan may strain HSBC's capital base further, Ramos said in yesterday's report.