Cathay Financial posts profit
Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), Taiwan's biggest financial company, posted a third-quarter net income of NT$1.13 billion ($32 million).
Cathay Financial provided no comparative year-earlier figures because its shares began trading in December after it delisted Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽) and turned into a holding company.
Cathay, which owns Taiwan's largest life insurer and has property, casualty insurance and banking businesses, has been hurt by the increasing burden of paying higher guaranteed returns on older policies as interest rates fall.
Meanwhile, Shin Kong Financial Holdings Co (新光金控), which owns Taiwan's No. 2 life insurer, more than doubled its 2002 net loss forecast after it failed to sell three pieces of real estate.
Shin Kong had planned to sell assets to raise money to meet insurance reserve regulations, finance future insurance payouts and cover losses.
The company widened its loss forecast to NT$19.3 billion (US$552 million) from the NT$8.8 billion it predicted in July, Shin Kong said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange. In March, Shin Kong forecast a NT$4 billion profit.
Land Bank may snare rival
Land Bank of Taiwan (土地銀行) may take over rival Central Trust of China (中央信託局), after the two state-run lenders and Bank of Taiwan (台灣銀行) scrapped plans in July to combine.
``Central Trust is evaluating on their side and we are reviewing on ours,'' Land Bank Executive Vice President Alan Shaw said, confirming a report that appeare in a Chinese-language yesterday.
The two banks expect to transform themselves into stock corporations as early as June, Shaw said. Any merger would
take place after that.
Taiwan lifts China corn ban
Taiwan lifted a ban on Chinese corn for the first time since 1949, turning to its biggest foe after a US port strike blocked shipments.
Importers may buy corn from China before the end of the year as an "emergency measure" after US port closures threatened a shortage of the grain to feed the nation's pigs, and said Ho Yu-liang, a section chief at the Board of Foreign Trade.
"The port closure has caused chaos in US corn shipments to Taiwan, so we have to allow Chinese corn to come in or risk the danger of a shortage," Ho said.
Taiwan imports about 5 million tons of corn a year, nearly all from the US, Ho said.
Ali credits chips for profit rise
Ali Corp (揚智科技), Taiwan's second-largest designer of chips for DVD players, said profit more than tripled in the third quarter after it started selling more chips for consumer products and lessened its dependence on the personal-computer market.
Net income was NT$257.8 million (US$7.4 million), up from NT$73.7 million a year earlier, the company said in a statement to the Taiwan stock exchange. Sales, announced earlier, fell to NT$1.5 billion from NT$1.6 billion.
NT dollar falls
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday fell NT$0.094 against the US dollar to close at NT$34.899 on the Taipei foreign exchange market, on concern of greater demand for US dollars from importers. A total of US$319 million changed hands.
"A lot of Taiwanese banks are advising companies to hedge payments for the year-end, partly because a number of them are expecting economic figures to come out worse than expected," weakening the currency, said Derrick Lee, an analystat MCM Asia Pacific in Singapore.
Agencies
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