Yuanta Financial Holding Co (元大金控), owner of the nation’s largest securities brokerage, saw its net income fall 81.92 percent year-on-year to NT$220 million (US$7.29 million) last month, as investors cut trading of risky assets amid economic uncertainty.
Yuanta Securities Corp (元大證券) posted NT$166 million in net profit last month, compared with NT$948 million a year earlier and NT$252 million in October, which Yuanta Financial spokesman Chuang Yu-de (莊有德) attributed mainly to shrinking stock turnover as the European debt crisis sidelined investors.
Its banking unit, Yuanta Bank (元大銀行), set aside NT$197 million in provisions last month to raise its loan-loss reserve ratio to 1.34 percent, higher than the 1 percent minimum set by by the Financial Supervisory Commission.
The new provisions requirements will take effect in January.
“We think it is better to increase provision for loans to domestic makers of flat panels and computer memory chips,” Chuang said. “The gloomy economic outlook warrants a conservative approach.”
For the first 11 months of the year, Yuanta Financial saw net income total NT$13.59 billion, or NT$1.5 earnings per share.
Meanwhile, stricter provision requirements drove E. Sun Financial Holding Co (玉山金控) to a net loss of NT$1.4 billion last month, reversing a profit of NT$3.4 million a year ago and NT$3.36 million in October, according to an exchange filing yesterday.
E. Sun Commercial Bank (玉山銀行), the group’s main subsidiary, reported a net loss of NT$1.52 billion after setting aside NT$2.34 billion in provisions last month.
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
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
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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