Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), Taiwan’s biggest financial services company and owner of the nation’s largest life insurer, posted a loss of NT$6.04 billion (US$199 million) in the first quarter.
Cathay Financial announced the unaudited net loss for the three months to March 31 in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday. It compares with a net profit of NT$10 billion a year earlier. The company gave no further details in its statement.
Cathay and rival firms have posted higher writedowns and provisions related to the collapse of the US subprime market, which has triggered more than US$230 billion of losses at banks and securities firms globally. Taiwan’s stocks have advanced though on hopes president-elect Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) will woo China.
“Cathay Financial might post a profit in the second quarter although it won’t be too good as further provisions for CDO investment losses may be needed,” said Parker Wu (吳年恭), a fund manager at Agricultural Bank of Taiwan (全國農業金庫) who helps manage the equivalent of US$150 million in Taipei. “Profitability will definitely improve as stock investments should be good after Taiwan’s new president vowed to improve ties with China.”
Wu attributed Cathay’s first quarter loss to provisions for losses related to investments in collateralized debt obligations and foreign exchange losses after the New Taiwan dollar rose 6.3 percent in the first quarter.
The TAIEX beat the world’s biggest stock markets in the first quarter as investors bet that the election of a president who favors opening toward China will ease travel and investment restrictions with the fastest-growing major economy.
The election of Ma from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) on March 22 helped the TAIEX race past Brazil’s Bovespa Index, the best performer in the first two months. Cathay made a provision last year for a NT$3.27 billion loss related to investments in collateralized debt obligations, it said in March. The owner of the nation’s largest life insurer held NT$29 billion worth of investments in CDOs at the end of last year, Lee Chang-ken (李長庚), Cathay Financial’s executive vice president, said on March 21.
Net income last year tripled to NT$30.7 billion from 2006. Lee attributed the surge to higher investment income, rising fees from wealth management and a smaller provision for bad loans.
JITTERS: Nexperia has a 20 percent market share for chips powering simpler features such as window controls, and changing supply chains could take years European carmakers are looking into ways to scratch components made with parts from China, spooked by deepening geopolitical spats playing out through chipmaker Nexperia BV and Beijing’s export controls on rare earths. To protect operations from trade ructions, several automakers are pushing major suppliers to find permanent alternatives to Chinese semiconductors, people familiar with the matter said. The industry is considering broader changes to its supply chain to adapt to shifting geopolitics, Europe’s main suppliers lobby CLEPA head Matthias Zink said. “We had some indications already — questions like: ‘How can you supply me without this dependency on China?’” Zink, who also
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) received about NT$147 billion (US$4.71 billion) in subsidies from the US, Japanese, German and Chinese governments over the past two years for its global expansion. Financial data compiled by the world’s largest contract chipmaker showed the company secured NT$4.77 billion in subsidies from the governments in the third quarter, bringing the total for the first three quarters of the year to about NT$71.9 billion. Along with the NT$75.16 billion in financial aid TSMC received last year, the chipmaker obtained NT$147 billion in subsidies in almost two years, the data showed. The subsidies received by its subsidiaries —
The number of Taiwanese working in the US rose to a record high of 137,000 last year, driven largely by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) rapid overseas expansion, according to government data released yesterday. A total of 666,000 Taiwanese nationals were employed abroad last year, an increase of 45,000 from 2023 and the highest level since the COVID-19 pandemic, data from the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) showed. Overseas employment had steadily increased between 2009 and 2019, peaking at 739,000, before plunging to 319,000 in 2021 amid US-China trade tensions, global supply chain shifts, reshoring by Taiwanese companies and
At least US$50 million for the freedom of an Emirati sheikh: That is the king’s ransom paid two weeks ago to militants linked to al-Qaeda who are pushing to topple the Malian government and impose Islamic law. Alongside a crippling fuel blockade, the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) has made kidnapping wealthy foreigners for a ransom a pillar of its strategy of “economic jihad.” Its goal: Oust the junta, which has struggled to contain Mali’s decade-long insurgency since taking power following back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021, by scaring away investors and paralyzing the west African country’s economy.
RSS