Joanne Ling (凌忠嫄), a former head of Export-Import Bank of the Republic of China (中國輸出入銀行) and a long-standing Ministry of Finance official, yesterday took the helm at state-owned Land Bank of Taiwan (土地銀行), aiming to raise earnings contributions from overseas operations.
“We plan to achieve the goal through income diversification without compliance failures that might cost more,” Ling said at a handover ceremony.
Like its peers, the nation’s largest mortgage operator has sought to broaden interest spread and overall income through overseas operations, because low interest rates and excessive competition in Taiwan constrains profitability.
Languid property transactions are adding difficulty and the lender has to exercise caution to maintain healthy asset quality.
Land Bank posted pre-tax income of NT$9.19 billion (US$289.76 million) for the first eight months of the year, surpassing its target by 8 percent so far, Ling said, adding that the figure for the whole of the year is likely to exceed the NT$10 billion mark.
The results translated into earnings per share of NT$2.37 before tax, with returns on equity at 10.49 percent and returns on assets at 0.54 percent, company data showed.
Ling urged her colleagues to make an extra effort to increase earnings, because the government has allowed the lender to keep its profit this year to improve its capital adequacy.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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