E.Sun Financial Holding Co (玉山金控) has set its sights on growing grow its core businesses twice as fast as its peers this year, after the company ranked among the nation’s top three enterprises in almost all growth indicator categories last year, senior executives said yesterday.
E.Sun Financial is targeting loan expansion of between 10 and 12 percent this year, compared with the previous year, when its outstanding loans rose 11.5 percent as the sector posted overall growth of 5.6 percent, chairman Gary Tseng (曾國烈) said.
“As we seek a quick rate of expansion in our core businesses, we will try to make sure that fee income increases faster than interest income,” Tseng said.
Interest income generated less than 50 percent of the company’s total profits last year due to intensive domestic competition, he added.
The strategy means that E.Sun Financial will have to enhance the quality of its services and deepen its relationship with customers, while focusing on higher-yielding products and services, Tseng said.
E.Sun Finacial’s net fee income totaled NT$9.05 billion (US$297.68 million) last year, rising 21.1 percent from a year ago thanks to strong wealth management and credit card businesses growing 37.9 percent and 13.1 percent respectively over the period, company data showed.
The financial group’s fee income constituted 34.1 percent of its after-tax profit last year at NT$8.46 billion, a proportion that is expected to increase by 15 to 20 percent this year, president Joseph Huang (黃男州) said.
Wealth management and credit card business will continue to be key drivers for the company this year, when they are forecast to increase by 20 percent and 15 percent respectively, Huang said.
Hong Hong-based Morgan Stanley analyst Lily Choi (蔡麗麗) said she expects E.Sun Financial’s robust earnings last year to extend into this year.
“We are positive about bank-focused conglomerates such as E.Sun as they stand to benefit from the improving macroenvironment,” Choi said in Taipei last week.
E.Sun Financial is also interested in pursuing mergers and acquisitions that will advance its goal of becoming a regional benchmark financial service provider, Tseng said.
E. Sun Financial shares closed down 1.04 percent to NT$19.1 yesterday, compared with the TAIEX’s 0.18 percent rise, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
FACTORY SHIFT: While Taiwan produces most of the world’s AI servers, firms are under pressure to move manufacturing amid geopolitical tensions Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) started building artificial intelligence (AI) servers in India’s south, the latest boon for the rapidly growing country’s push to become a high-tech powerhouse. The company yesterday said it has started making the large, powerful computers in Pondicherry, southeastern India, moving beyond products such as laptops and smartphones. The Chinese company would also build out its facilities in the Bangalore region, including a research lab with a focus on AI. Lenovo’s plans mark another win for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who tries to attract more technology investment into the country. While India’s tense relationship with China has suffered setbacks