Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽), the main insurance unit of Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), reduced its holdings of Taiwanese shares by NT$4.1 billion (US$133.2 million) in the first quarter, as the insurer took a profit on the local stock market, which rose about 3 percent in the period.
The insurer lowered its holdings in Taiwanese stocks to NT$346.8 billion as of the end of March, compared with NT$350.9 billion recorded at the end of last year.
The insurer said its return on investment stood at 13.5 percent last quarter as the company took a profit from rising stock prices, which also helped its parent company report a 46 percent annual increase in net income to NT$18.04 billion, or earnings per share of NT$1.42.
Cathay Life said total dividend income from its holdings of local and overseas equities is expected to reach NT$17 billion this year, up from NT$2 billion last year.
Domestic shares now account for 8.2 percent of its total investments, Cathay Life said.
“The company is always adjusting its asset allocation dynamically,” Cathay Life vice president Wang Yi-tsung (王怡聰) told reporters after Cathay Financial Holding Co’s quarterly investors’ conference in Taipei yesterday.
The company raised its holding in overseas bonds by NT$88.9 billion in the first quarter. Last year, the company bought 10-year US Treasury bonds in anticipation that the US Federal Reserve could raise its policy rates in the second half of this year.
Cathay Life is ready to raise its holding in 10-year US Treasury bonds this year for better yield prospects,Wang said.
At yesterday’s conference, Cathay Financial, the nation’s top financial services provider by assets, said its embedded value increased to NT$56.4 per share as of the end of December last year, from NT$55 a year earlier, on the back of unrealized property gains.
The financial conglomerate’s net worth increased to NT$403 billion at the end of last year, with an embedded value of NT$709 billion during the period, company data showed.
With the firm forecasting an expected NT$55.5 billion in value of new business this year, Cathay Financial’s appraisal value totals NT$1.191 trillion, or NT$94.8 per share.
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