TAIEX could hit 8,000: Citigroup

Taiwan's benchmark index is likely to climb to between 7,500 points and 8,000 points this year in line with the nation's economic recovery, said Du Ying-tzyong (杜英宗), chairman of Citigroup Global Markets Taiwan Ltd yesterday.

Expressing an even more bullish view, Du said, "If the [global index compiler] MSCI decides to upgrade Taiwan to developed market status in its global equity indexes, an additional US$5 billion to US$20 billion of foreign capital may flow into investments in the TAIEX."

Du made the remarks yesterday at a Citibank NA event about the economic outlook for the coming year.

He also said that he expects to see state-owned banks rich in assets accelerate privatization by forging strategic alliances with cost-efficient private banks this year. He said this was an important part of the government's financial reform plans.

Commenting on the upward trend for both interest rates and foreign exchange rates, Du said interest rates were unlikely to see a 0.5 percent rise by the year's end while the New Taiwan dollar's appreciation will also be limited.

Citibank posted NT$8.26 billion in pre-tax earnings last year -- an increase of 2 percent from a year earlier -- to rank third in Taiwan, said Chan Tze-ching (陳子政), head of Citibank Taiwan.

The bank's pre-tax earnings lagged behind those of Hua Nan Commercial Bank's (華南銀行) NT$11.54 billion and the International Commercial Bank of China's (中國國際商銀) NT$8.98 billion, he said.

A Chinese-language newspaper reported earlier this month that Citigroup Inc may sell its stake in Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) to an insurance company outside Taiwan. Citibank bought 15 percent of Fubon shares, which were later diluted to 11 percent.

Chan refused to comment on the report, but said that the Citigroup-Fubon partnership remains unchanged. He also said Citigroup regards Taiwan as the second-largest market in Asia not including Japan and the key to the greater China market in light of the nation's vibrant economy and its policy of accelerated market reform.

Victor Kuan (管國霖), the bank's country business manager for consumer banking, yesterday told reporters that this year will be another important year for investments.

The bank will not rule out any merger and acquisition opportunities to expand the bank's non-organic growth in financial services, he said.

According to Kuan, Citibank's consumer-banking businesses saw a record high growth of 30 percent last year with its wealth management taking up a 10 percent market share and its credit-card spending taking up a 12 percent market share.

He added that the bank will also stress the importance of the bank insurance business this year.