Global equity market volatility wreaked havoc on the earnings of Taiwan’s financial institutions with life insurance units last month because risky assets accounted for sizable shares of their investment portfolios, company executives said yesterday.
Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), the nation’s largest financial services provider by assets, reported NT$1.29 billion (US$42.66 million) in net losses last month, reversing a net profit of NT$1.41 billion in October and compared with NT$1.41 billion profit for the same period last year, the company’s statement showed.
The conglomerate’s flagship unit, Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽), incurred net losses of NT$2.07 billion last month as equities at home and abroad fell, Cathay Financial spokesman Alan Lee (李偉正) said by telephone.
The TAIEX shed 9 percent last month as Europe’s debt crisis unnerved investors, local stock exchange data showed.
Lee said foreign exchange hedging costs also picked up moderately, although they remained within the company’s target range. He declined to supply detailed figures.
For the first 11 months of the year, cumulative earnings at Cathay Financial remained in positive territory at NT$11.69 billion, translating into NT$1.13 earnings per share, unaudited company data showed.
Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控), the nation’s second-largest financial services provider, reported a meager profit of NT$5 million last month, down from NT$1.2 billion profit in October and compared with NT$1.35 billion a year earlier, according to the filing.
Fubon Life Insurance Co (富邦人壽) appeared to be the main drag, with net losses of NT$620 million, wiping out the profit of NT$540 million generated by Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank (台北富邦銀行), the filing said.
Fubon Financial, whose corporate image has suffered from the sports lottery scandal at its lottery unit, blamed foreign exchange losses linked to currencies other than the US dollar, a company official said.
The group’s securities and non-life insurance subsidiaries reported net profits of NT$2 million and NT$130 million respectively, the filing said.
Despite the earnings slowdown, Fubon Financial continued to top its peers in profitability, with cumulative net income standing at NT$32.69 billion as of Nov. 30, or NT$3.63 earnings per share.
Shin Kong Financial Holding Co (新光金控), which draws its income mainly from its life insurance unit, also performed dismally, with a net loss of NT$724 million last month.
The group’s flagship unit, Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽), reported a net loss of NT$898 million attributable chiefly to unprofitable equities investments, Shin Kong Financial senior vice president Sunny Hsu (徐舜鋆) said.
“The losses applied both to domestic and overseas equities investments, which should come as no surprise by now,” Hsu said by telephone.
Equities investment constituted 11.5 percent of Shin Kong Life’s overall portfolio, valued at NT$1.38 trillion as of the end of September, company data said.
The losses weakened Shin Kong Financial’s earnings to NT$5.42 billion for the first 11 months.
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
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
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