(Repeats story that ran Friday with no changes to text)
* Chmn Flint and CEO Gulliver likely to step down in next 2 years
* Bank previously said chairman will be external candidate
* Identity of chmn to determine if bank looks to replace Gulliver
* HSBC set to report annual results Monday
By Lawrence White
LONDON, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Having finally put to rest a 10-month long debate over where its home should be, HSBC now has to assure investors it has a long-term leadership plan, with Chairman Douglas Flint and Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver likely set to step down in the next two years.
While no firm date has been set for either man's departure, Flint is expected to relinquish his post in the next year, while Gulliver said last Monday he will stay on until at least until the end of 2017 to complete a strategic plan set out last June.
HSBC is set to report annual results on Monday, with analysts braced for it to give a bleak outlook for revenue growth in 2016 against a difficult global market environment.
Europe's biggest bank has previously said that, in a break from tradition, its next chairman will be an external candidate, possibly a non-executive director already on the lender's board.
The identity of that chairman would determine whether the bank then looks immediately to replace Gulliver, sources said, with the bank's chief seen by staff and investors as having played a difficult hand well since he took over in 2010.
"For Stuart it's all about who comes in to be the next chairman, but I think the board want him to go on," said a senior Hong Kong-based HSBC banker familiar with the board's thinking.
If Gulliver does leave, most investors and HSBC insiders feel there is no obvious lead candidate to replace him - a common problem at large global banks where succession planning in recent years has seldom been smooth.
"As a matter of good governance, we always have succession plans in place for all senior executives, however we are not working to a specific timetable for either the chairman or chief executive succession," a spokeswoman for HSBC said in an emailed statement.
Both Flint and Gulliver took their roles after a boardroom battle in 2010, which marked a departure from HSBC's track record of orderly successions.
Among top current management, global banking and markets head Samir Assaf and retail and wealth management head John Flint are the most often cited contenders.
A third potential candidate, former commercial banking head Simon Cooper, took himself out of the running by leaving HSBC in December to become corporate and investment banking head at rival Standard Chartered.