State-run Hua Nan Financial Holdings Co (華南金控) yesterday expressed interest in acquiring local securities brokerages after reporting a 1 percent decline in net profits of NT$9.1 billion (US$261.6 million) for last year — the second-highest among 13 other domestic rivals.
"If there are suitable candidates, we will look for acquisition opportunities among securities brokerages whose assets are relatively transparent and easy to conduct due diligence checks on, compared to those of insurance companies or banks," company president David Lee (李正義) told an investors' conference yesterday, adding that the valuations of some financial institutions had become very attractive.
The company hopes to beef up its securities arm, which currently has a 3 percent market share, Lee said.
The financial service provider also vowed to accelerate its expansion into the Chinese market once the government inks a financial accord with its Chinese counterpart.
"This year, we will be very aggressive in upgrading our liaison offices in Shenzhen into, hopefully, the first Taiwanese bank branch there," Lee said, adding that the company will first focus on serving Taiwanese businesspeople in the Pearl River Delta area.
The company will also aggressively seek Chinese financial institutions as strategic partners, while looking for a capital injection from small and medium-sized or regional Chinese banks as shareholders, the executive said. Hua Nan yesterday posted an earning per share (EPS) of NT$1.49, down from the previous year’s NT$1.54, with a 0.54 return on asset and a 10.02 return on equity.
Its main growth driver came from its banking subsidiary, whose profits grew 6 percent year-on-year to NT$9.5 billion last year, while its securities and non-life insurance arms incurred NT$235 million and NT$183 million in losses respectively.
The company wrote off NT$1.93 billion in losses from its structured note investments linked to several failing overseas investment banks, such as Lehman Brothers Inc.
The company vowed to expand fee income-based businesses, such as principal-guaranteed insurance products and wealth management, while seeking growth in loans to fund the government’s infrastructure projects, so as to make up losses from a narrowed net interest margin following the central bank’s interest rate cuts, Lee said.
The company plans to raise NT$10 billion this year to strengthen its capital reserves through the issuance of subordinated bonds, Lee said, adding that it will continue to cut its operating costs.
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves hit a record high at the end of last month, surpassing the US$600 billion mark for the first time, the central bank said yesterday. Last month, the country’s foreign exchange reserves rose US$5.51 billion from a month earlier to reach US$602.94 billion due to an increase in returns from the central bank’s portfolio management, the movement of other foreign currencies in the portfolio against the US dollar and the bank’s efforts to smooth the volatility of the New Taiwan dollar. Department of Foreign Exchange Director-General Eugene Tsai (蔡炯民)said a rate cut cycle launched by the US Federal Reserve
The US government on Wednesday sanctioned more than two dozen companies in China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, including offshoots of a US chip firm, accusing the businesses of providing illicit support to Iran’s military or proxies. The US Department of Commerce included two subsidiaries of US-based chip distributor Arrow Electronics Inc (艾睿電子) on its so-called entity list published on the federal register for facilitating purchases by Iran’s proxies of US tech. Arrow spokesman John Hourigan said that the subsidiaries have been operating in full compliance with US export control regulations and his company is discussing with the US Bureau of
Businesses across the global semiconductor supply chain are bracing themselves for disruptions from an escalating trade war, after China imposed curbs on rare earth mineral exports and the US responded with additional tariffs and restrictions on software sales to the Asian nation. China’s restrictions, the most targeted move yet to limit supplies of rare earth materials, represent the first major attempt by Beijing to exercise long-arm jurisdiction over foreign companies to target the semiconductor industry, threatening to stall the chips powering the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. They prompted US President Donald Trump on Friday to announce that he would impose an additional
Pegatron Corp (和碩), a key assembler of Apple Inc’s iPhones, on Thursday reported a 12.3 percent year-on-year decline in revenue for last quarter to NT$257.86 billion (US$8.44 billion), but it expects revenue to improve in the second half on traditional holiday demand. The fourth quarter is usually the peak season for its communications products, a company official said on condition of anonymity. As Apple released its new iPhone 17 series early last month, sales in the communications segment rose sequentially last month, the official said. Shipments to Apple have been stable and in line with earlier expectations, they said. Pegatron shipped 2.4 million notebook
RSS