Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控), the nation’s third-largest financial services provider by assets, said yesterday it was cautious about its outlook for the second half on a sustained global economic slowdown, after posting a modest gain in the first half.
Fubon Financial president Victor Kung (龔天行) said he was pessimistic about economic prospects for the remainder of the year with the US economic downturn expected to deepen and subprime mortgage woes continuing to mitigate the company’s profitability.
“Given the sentiment at home and abroad, I expect the company will put up a similar performance for the rest of the year as for the first half,” Kung told an investor presentation in Taipei.
The company reported NT$7.01 billion (US$225 million), or NT$0.91 per share, in after-tax profits for the first six months, outperforming most other domestic rivals, although net income dropped 19.1 percent from last year, the report showed.
Looking ahead, Fubon Commercial Bank (富邦銀行) president Jerry Harn (韓蔚廷) said the bank’s wealth management business expected a 10 percent decline this year.
The bank raked in NT$966 million in wealth management fee income for the second quarter, compared with NT$1.47 billion for the first quarter. This represents a drop of 8 percent year-on-year in the first half, the report showed.
Interest yields reached NT$4.47 billion in the second quarter, down from NT$4.48 billion for the first three months, the report said.
Harn said he expected the net interest margin would stand at the same level in the second half as in the first half.
Commenting on cross-strait banking, Harn said the company will adopt a conservative strategy, noting that Taiwanese businesspeople based in China have lower credit standings and the investment environment there is no longer rosy.
He said the government is likely to give its approval next month for the bank’s planned investment in Chinese bank Xiamen City Commercial Bank (廈門商銀).
Chuang Pi-yen (莊弼彥), a research manager at Mega Securities Co (兆豐金控), said the entire financial industry had suffered losses in foreign exchange and Fubon Financial was no exception.
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