State-run Hua Nan Financial Holding Co (華南金控) aims to achieve stable and modest profit growth this year — following last year’s flat results — as it seeks to increase its loan books at offshore banking units and overseas branches, top executives said yesterday.
The bank-focused conglomerate is looking to grow profits this year by 4 percent to 5 percent from last year’s net income of NT$14.1 billion (US$458.31 million), driven mainly by a double-digit increase in its offshore and overseas lending business, Hua Nan Financial president Derek Chang (張雲鵬) said.
Hua Nan Commercial Bank (華南銀行), the group’s main source of income last year with a 97 percent earnings contribution, is seeking to increase its overseas and offshore lending operations by 10 to 15 percent this year, supported by an improving global economy and business environment, Chang said.
“While interest spreads are tapering off in overseas markets, they remain higher than in Taiwan,” which has the lowest borrowing costs in Asia because of excessive liquidity and competition, Chang said.
Offshore and overseas operations are expected to generate 40 percent of overall earnings this year, compared with last year’s 39.2 percent, Hua Nan Financial chairman Wu Tang-chieh (吳當傑) said, adding that the bank would also look for syndicated loan opportunities abroad.
Wu, a former deputy minister of finance, has decided to give top priority to legal compliance and risk control and therefore advocates a cautious and down-to-earth business approach.
“A penny saved is a penny earned,” Wu said, alluding to the US$180 million fine the New York State Department of Financial Services imposed on state-run Mega International Commercial Bank’s (兆豐銀行) New York branch in September last year for compliance failure years ago.
On the domestic front, Hua Nan Bank aims to increase the number of credit cards it has in circulation to 1.05 million this year, from last year’s 930,000 cards, which would allow it to become one of the nation’s top-10 card issuers, a rise from its present 11th place, bank vice president Li Tsung-hsien (李宗賢) said.
Hua Nan Securities Co (華南永昌證券), the group’s brokerage arm, is seeking to outperform its state-run peers in market share this year by courting affluent clients, company president Chen Chin-feng (陳錦峰) said.
The security house has benefited from ongoing liquidity-driven rallies on the local bourse, but it has to brace for uncertainty linked to upcoming US Federal Reserve interest rate hikes, Britain’s departure from the EU and growing tension between the US and its trade partners, Chen said.
In related news, South China Insurance Co (華南產物保險) president Kevin Tu (?志佶) said his company was the provider of compulsory automobile liability insurance for a tour bus that crashed near Taipei’s Muzha (木柵) on Monday night, leaving 33 people dead and 11 injured.
Each dead or seriously injured person could be awarded NT$2 million in compensation, Tu said, adding that the money would come from a reserve fund and would not affect the company’s bottom line.
In Italy’s storied gold-making hubs, jewelers are reworking their designs to trim gold content as they race to blunt the effect of record prices and appeal to shoppers watching their budgets. Gold prices hit a record high on Thursday, surging near US$5,600 an ounce, more than double a year ago as geopolitical concerns and jitters over trade pushed investors toward the safe-haven asset. The rally is putting undue pressure on small artisans as they face mounting demands from customers, including international brands, to produce cheaper items, from signature pieces to wedding rings, according to interviews with four independent jewelers in Italy’s main
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has talked up the benefits of a weaker yen in a campaign speech, adopting a tone at odds with her finance ministry, which has refused to rule out any options to counter excessive foreign exchange volatility. Takaichi later softened her stance, saying she did not have a preference for the yen’s direction. “People say the weak yen is bad right now, but for export industries, it’s a major opportunity,” Takaichi said on Saturday at a rally for Liberal Democratic Party candidate Daishiro Yamagiwa in Kanagawa Prefecture ahead of a snap election on Sunday. “Whether it’s selling food or
CONCERNS: Tech companies investing in AI businesses that purchase their products have raised questions among investors that they are artificially propping up demand Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Saturday said that the company would be participating in OpenAI’s latest funding round, describing it as potentially “the largest investment we’ve ever made.” “We will invest a great deal of money,” Huang told reporters while visiting Taipei. “I believe in OpenAI. The work that they do is incredible. They’re one of the most consequential companies of our time.” Huang did not say exactly how much Nvidia might contribute, but described the investment as “huge.” “Let Sam announce how much he’s going to raise — it’s for him to decide,” Huang said, referring to OpenAI
The global server market is expected to grow 12.8 percent annually this year, with artificial intelligence (AI) servers projected to account for 16.5 percent, driven by continued investment in AI infrastructure by major cloud service providers (CSPs), market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. Global AI server shipments this year are expected to increase 28 percent year-on-year to more than 2.7 million units, driven by sustained demand from CSPs and government sovereign cloud projects, TrendForce analyst Frank Kung (龔明德) told the Taipei Times. Demand for GPU-based AI servers, including Nvidia Corp’s GB and Vera Rubin rack systems, is expected to remain high,
RSS