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.
KEEPING UP: The acquisition of a cleanroom in Taiwan would enable Micron to increase production in a market where demand continues to outpace supply, a Micron official said Micron Technology Inc has signed a letter of intent to buy a fabrication site in Taiwan from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion to expand its production of memory chips. Micron would take control of the P5 site in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼) and plans to ramp up DRAM production in phases after the transaction closes in the second quarter, the company said in a statement on Saturday. The acquisition includes an existing 12 inch fab cleanroom of 27,871m2 and would further position Micron to address growing global demand for memory solutions, the company said. Micron expects the transaction to
Vincent Wei led fellow Singaporean farmers around an empty Malaysian plot, laying out plans for a greenhouse and rows of leafy vegetables. What he pitched was not just space for crops, but a lifeline for growers struggling to make ends meet in a city-state with high prices and little vacant land. The future agriculture hub is part of a joint special economic zone launched last year by the two neighbors, expected to cost US$123 million and produce 10,000 tonnes of fresh produce annually. It is attracting Singaporean farmers with promises of cheaper land, labor and energy just over the border.
US actor Matthew McConaughey has filed recordings of his image and voice with US patent authorities to protect them from unauthorized usage by artificial intelligence (AI) platforms, a representative said earlier this week. Several video clips and audio recordings were registered by the commercial arm of the Just Keep Livin’ Foundation, a non-profit created by the Oscar-winning actor and his wife, Camila, according to the US Patent and Trademark Office database. Many artists are increasingly concerned about the uncontrolled use of their image via generative AI since the rollout of ChatGPT and other AI-powered tools. Several US states have adopted
A proposed billionaires’ tax in California has ignited a political uproar in Silicon Valley, with tech titans threatening to leave the state while California Governor Gavin Newsom of the Democratic Party maneuvers to defeat a levy that he fears would lead to an exodus of wealth. A technology mecca, California has more billionaires than any other US state — a few hundred, by some estimates. About half its personal income tax revenue, a financial backbone in the nearly US$350 billion budget, comes from the top 1 percent of earners. A large healthcare union is attempting to place a proposal before
RSS