First Financial Holding Co (第一金控) saw its net income last year surge 1.5 times from a year earlier thanks to its banking arm’s strong loans business.
Net profit last year expanded to NT$6.98 billion (US$238 million), or earnings per share (EPS) of NT$1.09, compared with NT$2.69 billion, or EPS of NT$0.44, in 2009, according to a company statement.
Net revenue rose 10 percent to NT$32.5 billion last year, the financial services provider said.
First Financial’s banking unit, First Commercial Bank (第一商業銀行), which accounted for more than 90 percent of its total net profit, reported a net income of NT$6.3 billion last year, up 209 percent from NT$2.05 billion a year ago.
First Bank’s total loans rose 14.4 percent to NT$1.25 trillion last year — mainly from loans to small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) — from NT$1.09 trillion in 2009, First Financial said.
Corporate loans rose 23.7 percent last year, with those to SMEs climbing 27.7 percent.
Corporate loans are forecast to rise by up to 11 percent this year, again driven by robust SME demand, Annie Lee (李淑玲), an investor relations executive, said during a teleconference.
The bank’s non-performing loan ratio was 0.84 percent and its coverage ratio was 112.58 percent last year.
However, First Financial’s brokerage arm, First Securities Inc (第一金證券), saw its earnings last year drop 35.9 percent to NT$585 million, while First-Aviva Life Insurance Co (第一金人壽) incurred a narrower loss of NT$143 million last year, down from a net loss of NT$184 million the previous year.
Among the five Taiwanese banks that have won Chinese approval to set up branches, First Bank and Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) were the first to set up branches across the Taiwan Strait. Both opened their branches on Dec. 23 in Shanghai.
First Financial said it was considering raising capital to fund its expansion in China. It added that it is scheduled to open a financial leasing subsidiary in China next month.
The company also plans to expand in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Myanmar this year.
Its stock soared by the 7 percent daily limit yesterday to close at NT$24.65 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, before the release of its financial results.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure