Cathay Financial Holdings Co (國泰金控), the nation’s largest financial services provider by asset value, yesterday reiterated its ambition to expand at home and across the Taiwan Strait, unfazed by a poor quarterly performance.
The company will press ahead and seek to boost its presence in China and step up investment in the property market in Taiwan, despite the bearish global business climate, Cathay spokesman Lee Chang-ken (李長庚) told an investors conference.
Cathay Financial, the parent company of Cathay Life Co (國泰人壽), Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行), Cathay Securities Co (國泰證券) and Cathay Century Insurance Co (國泰產險), posted a net income of NT$6.1 billion (US$185 million) in the third quarter, a fall of 50 percent from NT$12.2 billion a year earlier.
Net profits for the first nine months plunged 88 percent to NT$3.84 billion for the first nine months, or NT$0.4 per share, compared with last year, the company’s financial statement showed. The losses were primarily attributed to investments linked to Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.
“It is the company’s policy to invest in the property market despite business sentiment,” Lee said. “We’ll buy more when the prices are reasonable.”
A sluggish market has led to more reasonable property prices, Lee said.
Cathay Life, the nation’s biggest life insurer, increased its investments in bonds and cut stock purchases in the third quarter as the global financial crisis caused share prices to tumble.
Cathay Life reported a meager revenue of NT$4.7 billion in the third quarter, the statement said.
Asked if Cathay Financial was interested in acquiring Nan Shan Life Insurance (南山人壽) as its parent company, American International Group Inc, the largest US insurer, has been facing financial woes, Lee said the company was keen to make acquisitions should the right opportunities arise.
“To my knowledge, Nan Shan is not seeking a buyer,” Lee said. “We’ll not carry out any merger just for the sake of it, either.”
Cathay United Bank reported a net income of NT$1.5 billion for the third quarter and NT$4.5 billion for the first nine months, the statement said.
Another subsidiary, Cathay Century Insurance, posted NT$100 million net income for the third quarter and NT$500 million for the first nine months, the statement said.
Shares of Cathay Financial closed up 6.95 percent, or NT$2.45, to NT$37.3 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday before the release of the third quarter results.
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