Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), the nation’s largest financial services provider, said yesterday it made a net profit of NT$1.21 billion (US$41 million) last month, down from NT$1.40 billion in January because of less working days in the month.
In the first two months of the year, however, Cathay Financial posted a net profit of NT$2.61 billion, compared with a net loss of NT$1.54 billion a year earlier, thanks to rising fee incomes from its banking unit, the company said in an e-mailed statement.
Based on the financial holding firm’s 10.15 billion issued shares, net profit for the first two months translated into NT$0.26 in earnings per share, the Taipei-based company said.
Among Cathay Financial’s major business units, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) posted a net profit of NT$1.14 billion last month. The lender saw profits hit NT$1.99 billion, or NT$0.38 per share, in the first two months.
That was followed by Cathay Life Insurance Corp (國泰人壽), the group’s flagship unit and the nation’s largest life insurer, which made a profit of NT$60 million last month and NT$450 million in the first two months, company data showed.
“Owing to rising sales in high-yield products, Cathay Life saw its first-year premiums grow by an industry-leading 66.1 percent to NT$7 billion last month,” the statement said.
The company’s non-life insurance unit, Cathay Century Insurance Co (國泰產險), made a net profit of NT$40 million last month and NT$170 million in the first two months, the statement showed.
On Tuesday, Cathay Financial said its non-life insurance unit had obtained permission to set up a branch in Hanoi, Vietnam, after it opened a branch in Ho Chi Minh City in December.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
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