Taiwanese banks’ Chinese branches last month posted pre-tax losses of NT$930 million (US$29.11 million) as they began to write off delinquent loans in China, the Financial Supervisory Commission’s (FSC) Banking Bureau said yesterday.
“A number of banks who have participated in a syndicated loan to troubled China Firstextile Holdings Ltd (中國福斯特紡織) wrote off NT$780 million in delinquent debt last month,” Banking Bureau Deputy Director-General Jean Chiu (邱淑貞) said.
In addition to narrowing net interest margins and foreign exchange losses, Taiwanese banks’ earnings last month were strained by NT$280 million in additional provisions, Chiu added.
“We view banks’ write-off decision positively, as it shows that they are resilient enough to absorb the loss and ensure their long-term viability,” Chiu said.
As a result of the write-off, the banks’ China-related non-performing loan ratio improved from 1 percent as of the end of May to 0.2 percent last month, Chiu said.
She added that banks would continue recovery efforts and that they might have a chance of writing back gains in the future.
Taiwanese banks were also affected by delinquent syndicated loans to another China-based company, Fujian Ultrasonic Shoes Co Ltd (福建索力鞋業).
Both syndicated loans were arranged by Nomura International (Hong Kong) Ltd. Last month, six Taiwanese banks filed a lawsuit in Taiwan against subsidiaries of Nomura Holdings Inc over the loan to Fujian Ultrasonic.
Overall, Taiwanese banks still reported pre-tax profits last month, the bureau’s data showed.
However, their aggregate pre-tax profits dipped 8.79 percent to NT$26.56 billion last month from a year ago, data showed.
Banks’ overseas branches excluding China posted a 25.1 percent jump in pre-tax profits last month to NT$2.31 billion, and their overseas banking units (OBUs) reported a 8.2 percent rise in pre-tax profits to NT$7.07 billion, but their earnings contribution from domestic banking units (DBUs) fell 11.4 percent annually to NT$18.11 billion, data showed.
In the first half of the year, banks’ aggregate pre-tax earnings dipped 2.26 percent to NT$165.3 billion from NT$169.13 billion in the same period last year, the data showed.
In the first half, Taiwanese banks’ Chinese branches reported a pre-tax loss of NT$50 million, compared with pre-tax profits of NT$2.14 billion a year ago, data showed.
During the same period, banks’ pre-tax earnings from overseas branches excluding China rose 2.4 percent to NT$16.35 billion. Pre-tax earnings by their OBUs dropped 9.8 percent annually to NT$38.19 billion, while their DBUs’ pre-tax earnings rose 2 percent annually to NT$110.82 billion, data showed.
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