Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) plans to expand its business in Asia by setting up operations bases on its own, as well as seeking mergers and acquisitions (M&A).
To achieve this goal, the company is considering proposing a fund-raising scheme of NT$50 billion (US$315.36 billion) at this year’s shareholders’ meeting, an official said, after it submitted its regional expansion plans for the next three to five years to the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) last month.
“The company will follow the commission’s instructions, adopting a more proactive approach to play in the ‘Asian League’ in the future,” Fubon Financial president Vivien Hsu (許婉美) told reporters after hosting a recruitment orientation on Saturday.
Fubon is seeking expansion opportunities for its four core businesses — banking, life insurance, insurance and brokerage — Hsu said, adding that setting up its own operations bases and expanding by M&A would both be in the plan.
Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank (台北富邦銀行), the company’s banking arm, is to open a branch in Singapore later this year, Hsu said.
However, Hsu said there are risks of doing M&As in Southeast Asia, including restrictions set by governments, as well as the limited amount of shares released by family-run financial services companies.
“So far, we have not seen a target with strategic investment incentives yet,” she said.
Fubon Financial topped its local peers’ profitability for the sixth consecutive year last year, posting net income of NT$60.19 billion, or earnings per share of NT$5.88, both a record-high level in company history, according to the firm’s financial data.
It may raise its dividend payout to shareholders this year based on its record-high profitability recorded last year, Hsu said.
The board of directors plan to finalize the issue in the next few months, she added.
It distributed a cash dividend of NT$1.5 per share last year.
Fubon Financial may also raise wages for its employees later this year, Hsu said.
The company increased wages by an average of 3.5 percent last year, she added.
Fubon Financial and its subsidiaries plans to hire up to 8,500 employees this year, an increase of 20 percent from last year, with the company set to recruit 40 management associates, the largest number in its history.
Wages for management associates — generally first-time job-seekers with the goal of developing a career in the financial services industry — may start from NT$60,000, with a chance of earning 17 to 18 months of salary per year, company data showed.
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
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
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last