China Merchants Bank Co (招商銀行), the biggest bank in southern China, plans to open representative offices in London and Taipei as it speeds up expansion overseas to catch up with bigger rivals.
The Shenzhen-based bank will start preparation work this year, China Merchants said in a statement to the Shanghai stock exchange yesterday. It also agreed to acquire a 60.5 percent stake in Tibet Trust & Investment Co, it said, without elaborating.
China Merchants president Ma Weihua (馬蔚華), 60, who pioneered the nation’s first credit card and helped quintuple the lender’s earnings over the past four years, is trying to offset slowing domestic economic and loan growth by diversifying into other financial sectors including insurance, and by making acquisitions.
The bank agreed on June 2 to buy 53.1 percent of Wing Lung Bank Ltd (永隆銀行) for HK$19.3 billion (US$2.5 billion) in its first overseas acquisition. It is required to make a general offer for the rest of the lender, valuing it at US$4.66 billion.
China Merchants posted a 116 percent jump in first-half profit to 13.25 billion yuan (US$1.9 billion) as it improved loan margins and maintained fees from credit cards, withstanding government attempts to cool lending growth, it said in a separate statement on Monday.
Net interest margin, a measure of lending profitability, widened to 3.66 percent in the first half from 3.11 percent in the full-year last year. Its non-performing loan ratio dropped 29 basis points from the end of last year to 1.25 percent as of June 30. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point.
China Merchants issued 3.14 million credit cards in the first six months, taking the total to 23.82 million and boosting its bank card fees by 65 percent to 1.28 billion yuan.
As of June 30, China Merchants held US$180 million in debt issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and recorded an unrealized gain of US$1.56 million.
The Chinese bank also owned US$75 million in mortgage-backed securities guaranteed by the two beleaguered US home loan mortgage companies.
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
Intel Corp yesterday reinforced its determination to strengthen its partnerships with Taiwan’s ecosystem partners including original-electronic-manufacturing (OEM) companies such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電). “Tonight marks a new beginning. We renew our new partnership with Taiwan ecosystem,” Intel new chief executive officer Tan Lip-bu (陳立武) said at a dinner with representatives from the company’s local partners, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the US chip giant’s presence in Taiwan. Tan took the reins at Intel six weeks ago aiming to reform the chipmaker and revive its past glory. This is the first time Tan
RSS