Two leading Taiwanese financial service providers made significant headway yesterday, as the IBT Group (台灣工銀集團) opened a second leasing company in northern China and Chailease Finance Co (中租迪和) secured an aircraft financing deal worth millions of US dollars.
IBT Group, which includes the Industrial Bank of Taiwan (台灣工銀), inaugurated a new leasing firm in Tianjin in a bid to extend its service network from the Yangtze River Delta to northern China, the group said in a statement.
With capitalization of US$20 million (NT$604.36 million), the new leasing firm has already obtained funding of more than 1 billion yuan (US$163 million) from Chinese banks and has been in contact with many prospective Taiwanese and Chinese clients, IBT said.
“The IBT leasing company aims to serve small and medium-sized enterprises in the fast-growing region,” IBT chairman Kenneth Lo (駱錦明) said, adding that Chinese banks tend to focus on big-cap clients.
IBT is upbeat about growing loan demand, fueled by China’s long-term economic development plans, the statement said.
The leasing firm in Suzhou has already turned a profit after its establishment in 2011, Lo said, adding that IBT would continue expansion in China and elsewhere.
Meanwhile, Chailease Finance, a major subsidiary of Chailese Holding Co (中租控股), said on Thursday evening it had struck a financing deal with a foreign client last month to buy a corporate jet from Canadian aircraft maker Bombardier.
The deal, valued at US$33 million, came two months after Chailease Finance inked a cooperation pact with Bombardier to broaden the availability of its aircraft in Southeast Asia and boost Chailease’s revenue, Chailease Holding spokesman Kevin Liao (廖英智) said by telephone.
Demand for corporate and private jets has been growing in Southeast Asia and Chailease Finance is expected to sign at least five more similar-sized financing deals with customers in the region later this year, Liao said.
“The leasing business will boost Chailease earnings in the next 10 years” given the low penetration rate of corporate and private jets in the region, Liao said, adding that Bombardier forecast an annual demand of 100 jets in the region in the coming decade.
Canada’s export development agency has promised to provide Chailease with liquidity, if necessary, to accelerate Bombardier’s business expansion in Asia, the Taiwanese leasing firm said.
Chailese Holding shares closed up 1.52 percent at NT$67, while IBT Bank shares closed flat at NT$6.10 yesterday, compared with the TAIEX’s 1.37 percent rise, Taiwan Stock exchange data showed.
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