Taiwan Ratings Corp (中華信評) yesterday said that the performance of its rating pool last year remained largely resilient to external challenges, albeit with a mild increase in negative bias in the second half.
“The majority of our ratings maintained a stable outlook throughout the year, even in the corporate sector, which experienced the heaviest impact from the tariff spat between the US and China,” the local arm of Standard & Poor’s (S&P) Global Ratings said in a report.
As a result, there was a slight increase in negative bias in the second half of last year, reflecting negative rating actions in the corporate sector as waning global demand created pressure on profitability and cash flow generation, it said.
Taiwan Ratings did not offer any upgrades for the corporate sector last year, but made three downgrades and six downward outlook revisions.
The financial services sector displayed a generally positive rating performance last year, leading Taiwan Ratings to upgrade six financial institutions, while downgrading two.
The upward actions mainly reflected prudent capital management and improved capitalization, it said.
Most structured financial transactions under its surveillance also showed a stable rating performance last year, supported by their conservative deal structure and steady counterparty support, despite asset performance volatility, Taiwan Ratings said.
The company downgraded a collateralized bond issuance due to the trustee’s failure to obtain a refund of a withheld tax from tax authorities, it said.
The credit quality of fixed-income funds were generally stable last year, despite continued yield competition, fluctuations in fund size, and the lower interest rate environment, which drove some fixed-income funds to pursue more aggressive investments, Taiwan Ratings said.
“We placed one fixed-income fund on credit watch with negative implications because of a compliance incident related to the fund company,” it said.
In all, Taiwan Ratings undertook six upward rating actions and five downward actions on rated entities in the nation’s financial and corporate sectors last year, it said.
The number of downgrades reached a three-year high, as there were no downgrades in the previous two years, it said.
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designer specializing in artificial-intelligence (AI) chips, yesterday said that small-volume production of 3-nanometer (nm) chips for a key customer is on track to start by the end of this year, dismissing speculation about delays in producing advanced chips. As Alchip is transitioning from 7-nanometer and 5-nanometer process technology to 3 nanometers, investors and shareholders have been closely monitoring whether the company is navigating through such transition smoothly. “We are proceeding well in [building] this generation [of chips]. It appears to me that no revision will be required. We have achieved success in designing
UNCERTAINTY: Investors remain worried that trade negotiations with Washington could go poorly, given Trump’s inconsistency on tariffs in his second term, experts said The consumer confidence index this month fell for a ninth consecutive month to its lowest level in 13 months, as global trade uncertainties and tariff risks cloud Taiwan’s economic outlook, a survey released yesterday by National Central University found. The biggest decline came from the timing for stock investments, which plunged 11.82 points to 26.82, underscoring bleak investor confidence, it said. “Although the TAIEX reclaimed the 21,000-point mark after the US and China agreed to bury the hatchet for 90 days, investors remain worried that the situation would turn sour later,” said Dachrahn Wu (吳大任), director of the university’s Research Center for
Nintendo Co hopes to match the runaway success of the Switch when its leveled-up new console hits shelves on Thursday, with strong early sales expected despite the gadget’s high price. Featuring a bigger screen and more processing power, the Switch 2 is an upgrade to its predecessor, which has sold 152 million units since launching in 2017 — making it the third-best-selling video game console of all time. However, despite buzz among fans and robust demand for pre-orders, headwinds for Nintendo include uncertainty over US trade tariffs and whether enough people are willing to shell out. The Switch 2 “is priced relatively high”
RSS