Taiwan’s financial holding companies reported improved earnings last month as profitability in core businesses picked up amid stabilizing financial markets.
State-run Mega Financial Holdings Co (兆豐金控) posted NT$2.38 billion (US$80.57 million) in net income last month, rising 27.24 percent from a month earlier on the back of increased profits in its banking, securities and bills finance subsidiaries, the parent said in a statement yesterday.
The group’s main source of income, Mega International Commercial Bank (兆豐國際商銀), contributed 87.62 percent with NT$2.09 billion net income last month, company data showed.
The venture-capital unit swung to a profit with a NT$2.58 million gain from a net loss of NT$1.55 million a month earlier, the same data indicated.
For the first two months of this year, the parent accumulated NT$4.25 billion in net profit, outpacing its peers with earnings of NT$0.38 per share.
Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金控) and Taishin Financial Holdings Co (台新金控) tied for second place with earnings of NT$0.28 per share as of last month among firms with disclosed figures, their statements said on Tuesday.
Chinatrust Financial, the nation’s third-largest financial services provider by assets, reported NT$1.53 billion in net profit last month, slowing from a month earlier, attributable to increased personnel expenses and lower income from interest, the company said, adding that cumulative earnings totaled NT$3.17 billion at the end of last month.
Taishin Financial reported NT$1.04 billion in net income last month, the highest in nine months on the back of improved returns from securities investments, the company said.
Despite global uncertainty, the conglomerate told an investors’ conference on Tuesday it expected income from interest and fees to grow from 5 percent to 15 percent this year as the local economy bottomed out last quarter and it may stage a slow yet steady recovery from this quarter onward.
For the first two months, net profit was NT$1.98 billion at Taishin Financial, company data indicated.
State-run First Financial Holding Co (第一金控) posted NT$1.14 billion in net income last month, thanks to its banking subsidiary First Commercial Bank (第一銀行), which generated NT$1.07 billion, or 94.1 percent, the parent said in a filing yesterday.
Cumulative earnings amounted to NT$1.93 billion as of the end of last month, translating into earnings of NT$0.25 per share and ranking it third among its peers so far.
E. Sun Financial Holding Co (玉山金控) reported a net profit of NT$578.87 million last month, underpinned by its banking unit E. Sun Commercial Bank’s (玉山銀行) NT$548.56 million net income, the group said in a statement yesterday.
The lender had voiced confidence earlier about aggressive earnings growth this year driven by its credit card and commercial lending businesses.
The bank is slated to inaugurate a joint venture with China’s leading online shopping service provider, Taobao (淘寶網), next week, which would allow it to tap into the massive electronic shopping market across the Taiwan Strait.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained