Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控) is being conservative about its earnings growth in the current quarter after market volatility pushed operating profits sharply lower in the third quarter, senior executives said yesterday.
The company reported a net profit of NT$1.43 billion (US$47.47 million) in the July-to-September period, falling 31.6 percent from the preceding quarter and 62.42 percent from the same period last year because of trading and investment losses, chief financial officer Welch Lin (林維俊) told an investors’ conference.
Cumulative earnings totaled NT$7.5 billion in the first nine months, expanding 21 percent from a year earlier, thanks to improving fee and interest incomes as well as bad loan recoveries, the company’s report showed. The figures translated into earnings of NT$1.02 per share.
Net fee income from wealth management, which registered robust growth in the first half, is expected to lose further momentum after cooling 11.5 percent from the second to the third quarter amid tumultuous markets, Lin said.
Taishin International Bank (台新銀行), the group’s main source of income, expects corporate lending to flatten or fall slightly this quarter, suppressing interest income, bank president Justin Tsai (蔡榮棟) said.
The lender is not interested in aggressive loan expansion, but will adopt a conservative approach -until the global economy shows clear signs of stabilization, Tsai said.
Consequently, the trading segment aims to cut holdings in overseas fixed-income investments and avoid instruments with a longer tenure, Tsai said.
Taishin Financial was not exposed to credit-stressed European countries such as Italy, Spain, Greece and Portugal, Tsai said.
Although corporate lending expanded to 45 percent of the bank’s loan book, excessive competition depressed the net interest margin (NIM) to 1.4 percent in the third quarter from 1.46 percent in the second quarter. Tsai said the NIM is forecast to stay flat this quarter as it is widely believed that the central bank will keep interest rates steady to stimulate economic growth.
The outlook for retail banking remains rosy, but its contribution will be limited because of its modest scale, Taishin Bank chief retail banking officer Spike Wu (吳清文) said.
Net fee income from credit-card business amounted to NT$363 million last quarter, increasing 7.5 percent from three months earlier, company data showed.
“The figures are likely to climb higher as more department stores launch anniversary promotion campaigns,” Wu said.
UBS financial analyst Pandora Lee (李懿璇) maintained a neutral rating on Taishin Financial shares, saying that bad loan recoveries, which have bolstered the group’s earnings, have peaked this year.
“With the bad loan ratio at a record low, Taishin Financial needs to seek catalysts elsewhere,” Lee said. “But there appears to be no major good news on the horizon.”
The group reported NT$1.46 billion in pre-provision operating profit in the third quarter, down 25.3 percent from the previous quarter and 16.1 percent from a year earlier, suggesting a lack of growth dynamism, Lee said.
Taishin Financial’s shares closed flat at NT$12.75 yesterday.
AI REVOLUTION: The event is to take place from Wednesday to Friday at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center’s halls 1 and 2 and would feature more than 1,100 exhibitors Semicon Taiwan, an annual international semiconductor exhibition, would bring leaders from the world’s top technology firms to Taipei this year, the event organizer said. The CEO Summit is to feature nine global leaders from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), Applied Materials Inc, Google, Samsung Electronics Co, SK Hynix Inc, Microsoft Corp, Interuniversity Microelectronic Centre and Marvell Technology Group Ltd, SEMI said in a news release last week. The top executives would delve into how semiconductors are positioned as the driving force behind global technological innovation amid the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution, the organizer said. Among them,
When she was in fifth grade, Scarlett Goddard Strahan started to worry about getting wrinkles. By the time she turned 10, she and her friends were spending hours on ByteDance Ltd’s TikTok and Google’s YouTube watching influencers tout products for achieving today’s beauty aesthetic: a dewy, “glowy,” flawless complexion. Goddard Strahan developed an elaborate skin care routine with facial cleansers, mists, hydrating masks and moisturizers. One night, her skin began to burn intensely and erupted in blisters. Heavy use of adult-strength products had wreaked havoc on her skin. Months later, patches of tiny bumps remain on her face, and her cheeks turn
Former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) yesterday warned against the tendency to label stakeholders as either “pro-China” or “pro-US,” calling such rigid thinking a “trap” that could impede policy discussions. Liu, an adviser to the Cabinet’s Economic Development Committee, made the comments in his keynote speech at the committee’s first advisers’ meeting. Speaking in front of Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), National Development Council (NDC) Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) and other officials, Liu urged the public to be wary of falling into the “trap” of categorizing people involved in discussions into either the “pro-China” or “pro-US” camp. Liu,
Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) yesterday said Taiwan’s government plans to set up a business service company in Kyushu, Japan, to help Taiwanese companies operating there. “The company will follow the one-stop service model similar to the science parks we have in Taiwan,” Kuo said. “As each prefecture is providing different conditions, we will establish a new company providing services and helping Taiwanese companies swiftly settle in Japan.” Kuo did not specify the exact location of the planned company but said it would not be in Kumamoto, the Kyushu prefecture in which Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC, 台積電) has a
RSS