E.Sun Financial Holding Co (玉山金控) yesterday reported a first-quarter net income of NT$1.06 billion (US$33.5 million), or NT$0.29 in earnings per share, on strong growth in its net fee income and net interest income.
With net fee income and net interest income growing 83 percent and 24 percent year-on-year respectively, E.Sun Financial’s first-quarter earnings were 76 percent higher than the NT$599 million it reported for the same period of last year, according to the company’s balance sheet released yesterday.
Net revenue, meanwhile, totaled NT$4.29 billion in the first three months, which was 11.14 percent higher than the NT$3.86 billion in the previous quarter and a 29.61 percent increase from NT$3.31 billion a year earlier, E.Sun Financial said.
Given that net interest margin (NIM) is rising and the fee income has recovered to above pre-crisis levels, “We are confident [that] we can continue growth momentum this year” similar to that in the first quarter, E.Sun president Joseph Huang (黃男州) said in a conference call last night.
NIM, which measures lending profitability, reached 122 basis points as of the end of March, from 113 basis points in the fourth quarter of last year, the company’s figures show.
Overall, net fee income totaled NT$1.34 billion and net interest income was NT$2.72 billion, the data show.
Asked about the company’s guidance for loan growth this year, Cathy Kuo (郭怡鷰), head of E.Sun Financial’s investment relationship department, said the company forecast an average of 10 percent on overall loan growth this year from last year.
In the first quarter, the company’s total loans grew 4.4 percent year-on-year to NT$573.7 billion, which was even higher than the NT$549.4 billion in loans E.Sun Financial posted for the whole of last year.
Its projected 10 percent increase in loans for this year includes a 10 percent to 15 percent increase in loans to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the backbone of Taiwan’s economy, amid the economic recovery in Taiwan, Kuo said.
E.Sun’s loans to SMEs totaled NT$120 billion during the first three months, up 6.6 percent year-on-year and compared with an increase of 6.4 percent in corporate loans to NT$241.4 billion in the first quarter over the same period.
However, mortgage loan growth will be about 5 percent this year in view of the government’s efforts to cool down the domestic housing market, Kuo said.
In the first three months, mortgage loans expanded just 0.1 percent to NT$255.1 billion from a year ago, compared with 3 percent growth in overall consumer loans to NT$332.2 billion over the same period, the company’s balance sheet showed.
E.Sun Financial also reported solid asset quality in the first quarter, IR manager Anthony Cheng (鄭恩融) said on the conference call, adding that the non-performing loan ratio fell to 0.57 percent as of March 31, from 0.67 percent at the end of last year.
Coverage ratio, meanwhile, rose from 92.8 percent to 113.6 percent over the same period, Cheng said.
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