ING Antai posts earnings
ING Antai Life Insurance Co (安泰), the country's biggest foreign insurer, said it raked in NT$77.4 billion in premium revenues last year, compared with NT$65.1 billion in 2001.
"For 2003, we expect to that number to hit NT$84.8 billion," Kenneth Shih (石寶忠), chief executive officer of ING Antai, said yesterday.
After setting aside an undisclosed amount for future expenditure, ING Antai achieved NT$1.16 billion in pre-tax earnings last year, with the rate of return reaching 9.79 percent, Shih said.
ING Antai, which entered the domestic market in 1988, ranked the fourth largest insurer, after Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰), Nan Shan Life Insurance Co (南山) and Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光).
With declining interest rates hurting investment returns for most insurers, ING Antai is planning to diversify its asset investments in Taiwan, David Waples, executive vice president and chief financial officer said yesterday.
The insurer has recruited CB Richard Ellis Taiwan Ltd (世邦魏理仕) as its principle real estate agent to purchase a Grade-A office building in Taipei's Hsinyi District to serve as its headquarters, Waples said.
CPC to stockpile oil
Chinese Petroleum Corp (中油) issued a tender to buy crude oil for March to build stockpiles in case war breaks out in Iraq and disrupts supplies, a company official said.
The company, which already bought 3.62 million barrels of crude for loading in March, is seeking more sweet crude oil, from Africa, Australia, Asia or the North Sea, the official said.
Sweet crude contains 0.5 percent or less sulfur by weight.
The oil would be loaded next month and delivered to Kaohsiung and Shalung either next month or April depending on origin, the CPC official said.
Chinese Petroleum usually buys between 2 million and 6 million barrels of crude a month.
Asian oil refiners are issuing more tenders to buy crude oil to avoid shortages in case the US attacks Iraq.
Bad-loan ratio falls to 8.85%
The bad loan ratio at domestic lenders fell to 8.85 percent at the end of last year from 10.2 percent at the end of September after the lenders accelerated write-offs of troubled loans.
About NT$1.25 trillion (US$36 billion) of loans were classed as non-performing or at risk of turning sour, the central bank said in a statement.
Excluding loans at risk of default and under surveillance, the non-performing loan-ratio stood at 6.12 percent, the central bank said.
First Commercial Bank (一銀), Chang Hwa Commercial Bank (彰銀) and other banks are cleaning up their balance sheets under a government directive to clear bad loans accumulated after a 2001 recession and a decade-long property slump.
Specific targets for reducing non-performing loans have been set by the Ministry of Finance Bureau of Monetary Affairs.
Sales rise for Yulon Motor
Yulon Motor Co (裕隆), the nation's biggest automaker, said last month's sales rose more than a fifth to NT$6.8 billion (US$195 million).
Sales were NT$5.6 billion in January 2001 and NT$2 billion in December.
NT dollar falls
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday traded lower against its US counterpart, declining NT$0.076 to close at NT$34.855 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
Turnover was US$591 million, compared with the previous day's US$459 million.
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