E.Sun Financial Holding Co (玉山金控) yesterday said it aims to expand into China, Singapore and Vietnam next year to capitalize on the region’s growing demand for corporate banking and wealth management services.
“Overseas expansion in China, Singapore and Vietnam sits on top of the company’s agenda next year,” E.Sun Financial president Joseph Huang (黃男州) said on the sidelines of a public function.
The bank-centric financial service provider plans to establish a banking branch in Dongguan, China, late this year or early next year once it receives regulatory approval form China, Huang said.
Huang said E.Sun Financial intends to provide its first Chinese branch with 700 million yuan (US$110 million) in capital, which is much higher than the 200 million yuan previously allowed to Taiwanese firms now that the Financial Supervisory Commission has increased the investment ceiling.
E.Sun Commercial Bank (玉山銀行), the group’s main source of earnings, had its plan to establish a branch in Sinapore approved by the commission on Tuesday and Huang said the bank hopes to enter the Singaporean market toward the end of the second quarter next year.
“We intend to focus on corporate banking, providing syndicated loans and wealth management services, in line with the group’s mid and long-term development plans in Asia,” Huang said.
E.Sun Bank is also looking to upgrade its representative office in Vietnam into a full branch to take advantage of the country’s fast-growing need for banking services, Huang said.
To back the overseas expansions, the medium-sized financial conglomerate last month raised NT$7.5 billion (US$250 million), which will be used to strengthen its overall capital to NT$45.75 billion, from the current NT$38.03 billion, Huang said.
The group’s capital will grow to NT$50 billion next year or in 2013 to meet tightening capital requirements as the overseas expansions unfold, Huang added.
E.Sun Financial aims to boost its core capital ratio to 9 percent toward the year end and its capital adequacy ratio at 12 percent, Huang said.
“We’re satisfied at the bank’s asset health, with the bad loan ratio standing at 0.19 percent and the coverage ratio at 312 percent as of September,” he said.
However, the lender would set aside more loan loss reserves to cooperate with regulators if they deem it necessary as global economic uncertainties increase, Huang said.
The commission has floated the idea of raising the minimum required reserves to 1 percent of total lending, from the present 0.5 percent, a move that might weaken banks’ earnings this year, and E.Sun Bank is expected to be one of the hardest hit given its credit profile.
The group reported a net profit of NT$4.29 billion during the January-to-September period, rising 9.33 percent from the same period a year ago, company data showed.
This translated to earnings per share of NT$1.05, up from NT$1.04 last year, as the group was less affected by the global market volatility than other domestic lenders.
Shares in E.Sun Financial shed 1.05 percent to NT$14.20 at the close of local trading yesterday.
SEMICONDUCTORS: The German laser and plasma generator company will expand its local services as its specialized offerings support Taiwan’s semiconductor industries Trumpf SE + Co KG, a global leader in supplying laser technology and plasma generators used in chip production, is expanding its investments in Taiwan in an effort to deeply integrate into the global semiconductor supply chain in the pursuit of growth. The company, headquartered in Ditzingen, Germany, has invested significantly in a newly inaugurated regional technical center for plasma generators in Taoyuan, its latest expansion in Taiwan after being engaged in various industries for more than 25 years. The center, the first of its kind Trumpf built outside Germany, aims to serve customers from Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia and South Korea,
Gasoline and diesel prices at domestic fuel stations are to fall NT$0.2 per liter this week, down for a second consecutive week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to drop to NT$26.4, NT$27.9 and NT$29.9 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to fall to NT$24.8 per liter at CPC stations and NT$24.6 at Formosa pumps, they said. The price adjustments came even as international crude oil prices rose last week, as traders
POWERING UP: PSUs for AI servers made up about 50% of Delta’s total server PSU revenue during the first three quarters of last year, the company said Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) reported record-high revenue of NT$161.61 billion (US$5.11 billion) for last quarter and said it remains positive about this quarter. Last quarter’s figure was up 7.6 percent from the previous quarter and 41.51 percent higher than a year earlier, and largely in line with Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co’s (元大投顧) forecast of NT$160 billion. Delta’s annual revenue last year rose 31.76 percent year-on-year to NT$554.89 billion, also a record high for the company. Its strong performance reflected continued demand for high-performance power solutions and advanced liquid-cooling products used in artificial intelligence (AI) data centers,
SIZE MATTERS: TSMC started phasing out 8-inch wafer production last year, while Samsung is more aggressively retiring 8-inch capacity, TrendForce said Chipmakers are expected to raise prices of 8-inch wafers by up to 20 percent this year on concern over supply constraints as major contract chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co gradually retire less advanced wafer capacity, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. It is the first significant across-the-board price hike since a global semiconductor correction in 2023, the Taipei-based market researcher said in a report. Global 8-inch wafer capacity slid 0.3 percent year-on-year last year, although 8-inch wafer prices still hovered at relatively stable levels throughout the year, TrendForce said. The downward trend is expected to continue this year,
RSS