State-run First Financial Holding Co (第一金控) is seeking expansion opportunities in China, Southeast Asia and Africa this year to boost its earnings abilities after overseas operations generated decent profits last year.
The conglomerate plans to set up five banking offices in China this year once Taiwan and China give the go-ahead, likely following a meeting of bilateral banking regulators next month, company chairman Tsai Ching-nian (蔡慶年) said last week.
First Financial favors rural areas of Henan Province for those outlets, enabling the group’s main subsidiary First Commercial Bank (第一銀行) to further tap the Chinese market and satisfy demand Taiwanese peers have opted to ignore, Tsai said.
The company plans to create a holding company to run the outlets once it has six of them, Tsai said.
Meanwhile, the bank is awaiting regulatory approval for its second branch in Chengdu, China, and is looking for partners to facilitate expansion in the massive Chinese market, Tsai said.
He added that First Bank prefers to own stakes of 70 percent to 80 percent in potential joint ventures.
Myanmar tops choices for overseas expansion elsewhere in Asia, Tsai said, after its government said it would allow foreign lenders with existing representative offices to acquire local peers or upgrade to branches this year.
“First Financial will take advantage of the regulatory easing,” Tsai said.
Africa represents another opportunity for overseas expansion, with an increasing number of Taiwanese firms establishing a foothold there and only one African state slipping into recession last year, despite the global slowdown, Tsai said.
Overseas operations underpinned an expansion of 6.2 percent in loans last year at First Financial, raising its net interest margin by 11 basis points, even though the stagnant economy and low interest rates squeezed profitability at home, First Financial investor relations head Annie Lee (李淑玲) told an investors’ conference yesterday.
Net income rose 35.5 percent year-on-year to NT$10.13 billion (US$348 million) last year, as profits at First Bank more than offset losses at its insurance, securities and investment trust units, Lee said.
First Financial gave a conservative guidance for this year, with overall lending projected to grow 3 percent and net interest margin to rise by 5 to 7 basis points, Lee said.
“The targets, set last quarter, may need to be revised upward after major economic bellwethers turned out stronger than expected this year,” Lee said.
First Financial shares closed flat at NT$18.9 on Wednesday, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
Elon Musk’s lieutenants have reached out to chip industry suppliers, including Applied Materials Inc, Tokyo Electron Ltd and Lam Research Corp, for his envisioned Terafab, early steps in an audacious and likely arduous attempt to break into the production of cutting-edge chips. Staff working for the joint venture between Tesla Inc and Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) have sought price quotes and delivery times for an array of chipmaking gear, people familiar with the matter said. In past weeks, they’ve contacted makers of photomasks, substrates, etchers, depositors, cleaning devices, testers and other tools, according to the people, who asked not to
The EU and US are nearing an agreement to coordinate on producing and securing critical minerals, part of a push to break reliance on Chinese supplies. The potential deal would create incentives, such as minimum prices, that could advantage non-Chinese suppliers, according to a draft of an “action plan” seen by Bloomberg. The EU and US would also cooperate on standards, investments and joint projects, as well as coordinate on any supply disruptions by countries like China. The two sides are additionally seeking other “like-minded partners” to join a multicountry accord to help create these new critical mineral supply chains, which feed into
Japan approved ￥631.5 billion (US$3.97 billion) in additional subsidies to hasten Rapidus Corp’s entry into the high-stakes artificial intelligence (AI) chipmaking arena, ramping up support for a project widely regarded as a long shot. The capital is intended to bankroll Rapidus’ work for information technology firm Fujitsu Ltd, one of the initial customers that Tokyo hopes would get the signature endeavor off the ground. The new money raises the fees and investments that the government is injecting into the start-up to ￥2.6 trillion by the end of the current fiscal year to March next year, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and
The founder of Chinese property giant Evergrande Group (恆大集團) has pleaded guilty to charges of fraud and bribery, a court said yesterday, the latest blow for what was once the country’s leading developer. Evergrande’s rise was propelled by decades of rapid urbanization and rising living standards, but in 2020, its access to credit dramatically narrowed when the government introduced curbs on excessive borrowing and speculation. The company defaulted in 2021 after struggling to repay creditors. Founder Xu Jiayin (許家印), 67, known as Hui Ka Yan in Cantonese, was reportedly held by police in 2023, with Evergrande saying he had been subjected to
RSS