UBS Taiwan is aiming for double-digit increases in revenue and profits this year due to improvements in investment banking as well as its wealth and asset management businesses, company executives said yesterday.
“We’re confident of double-digit growth this year, as firms will engage in more expansion activity amid ample liquidity and low interest rates,” said T.C. Lee (李天成), who assumed the helm at the Taipei branch in mid-November.
Lee expects more merger and acquisition (M&A) deals between firms in Taiwan and China after the two signed the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) in June last year.
UBS Taiwan will increase its staff this year, but Lee declined to give the exact number. The global financial service provider owns three branches in Taiwan after first entering the market in 1991.
The bank’s investment banking and asset management business was ranked the most profitable in the Asia-Pacific region last year, Lee said, adding that his company processed the most M&A cases, although it ranked third in terms of closed deals.
Last year, the Taipei branch helped Taiwan’s second--largest flat-panel maker, AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), raise US$800 million in euro-convertible bonds and helped manage AU Optronics’ acquisition of Toshiba Mobile Display Co’s plant in Singapore, Lee said.
In addition, UBS Taiwan helped Fubon Financial Holding Co’s (富邦金控) Hong Kong branch launch US$200 million in subordinated notes, Lee said.
Johhny Wong (黃日康), head of asset management, said his division would create a high-yield bond in March to target emerging markets in Asia because they remain popular among investors this year.
UBS Taiwan expects the local economy to expand 4.3 percent this year from last year, the New Taiwan dollar to trade at an average of NT$29.6 against the US currency and the TAIEX to climb to 9,650 points toward the end of the year, said William Dong (董成康), head of UBS Taiwan’s equities and research.
Dong, named the best stock analyst by Asiamoney, a financial monthly magazine, said the local currency is under pressure to appreciate this quarter, but added that the pressure might ease in the second half if the US economic recovery shows more strength.
The high jobless rates in the US and Europe and lingering concerns about the latter’s debt problems will continue to pose uncertainty to Taiwan’s economic showing this year, Dong said.
“Overall, we adopt optimistic views of the equity market here this year,” he said.
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