Several domestic banks yesterday revealed their earnings for the first half of this year with state-controlled Hua Nan Financial Holding Co (華南金控) and Chang Hwa Commercial Bank (彰化銀行) reaping growth in profit amid global credit concerns.
Hua Nan Financial, the nation’s seventh-largest financial services company, posted a 31 percent increase in first-half profit.
Its first-half income climbed to NT$5.8 billion (US$191 million), or NT$0.97 per share from NT$4.43 billion a year earlier, the company’s stock exchange filing showed yesterday. First-half profit at the company’s banking unit was NT$5.88 billion, the filing said.
Chang Hwa, whose biggest shareholder is Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控) with a 22.5 percent stake, yesterday reported NT$3.733 billion in before-tax profit in the first six months of this year, or NT$0.71 per share. The bank has written off NT$3.479 billion in bad loans this year, its press statement said yesterday.
The bank, in addition, plans to recruit 150 financial talents and another 31 administrative employees this month, the statement added.
Although it posted NT$9.309 billion in first-half profit, up from NT$8.21 billion a year earlier, Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金控), the nation’s fourth-largest financial company by market value, yesterday said its second-quarter profit fell 22 percent as it set aside more funds for bad loans.
Net income fell to NT$4.38 billion in the three months ended June 30, down from a NT$5.62 billion profit a year earlier. The figures were derived by subtracting the first-quarter results from first-half figures announced yesterday.
Chinatrust said last week that its banking unit planned a loss provision of NT$1 billion for last month because of concern that it may not recover loans to client Everskill Technology Co (仕欽科技企業).
Chinatrust Commercial Bank (中國信託商銀) extended NT$270 million in loans to the PC chassis maker and its subsidiaries, the parent company’s statement said on July 1. Everskill also has US$72 million in financing from Chinatrust, but saw 15 checks totaling NT$110 million rejected late last month, the statement said.
Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控), the nation’s third-largest financial services company by market value, yesterday posted an 18 percent decline in first-half profit.
Net income fell to NT$7.07 billion, down from NT$8.66 billion a year earlier, the company’s press statement said yesterday. The company said in May that it had losses from collateralized debt obligations.
First Financial Holding Co (第一金控), meanwhile, posted a 5.4 percent increase in first-half profit to NT$6.22 billion, or NT$1.02 per share, the company said yesterday. Profit at its banking unit climbed 17 percent to NT$7 billion during the period, a stock exchange filing showed.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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