Fitch Ratings yesterday said it has upgraded the credit ratings of some medium-sized Taiwanese lenders on expectation of better returns in the coming two years although their profitability remains muted.
Fitch raised Cosmos Bank’s (萬泰銀行) ratings to “BBB+” from “BBB” as the bank continues to generate higher profitability in line with its overall risk profile, compared with similarly rated peers, the international ratings agency said in a report.
Sufficient internal capital generation is likely to support loan growth that is not overly aggressive and yet above the sector average, the report said.
However, Cosmos’ ratings will remain constrained by the potential increase in risk profile stemming from its aspiration to expand more rapidly by courting higher-risk borrowers in unsecured personal lending and by heading into corporate lending, previously not an area that it has focused on, the report said.
Fitch changed Bank of Taipei’s (大台北銀行) outlook to “stable” from “negative” after concluding that its risk profile has not increased materially following loan growth in last two years, the report said. Although its ability to internally generate capital is weak, the lender has a solid capitalization to support its modest loan growth, the report said.
Fitch placed EnTie’s (安泰銀行) ratings to “positive outlook” on expectations of a gradual build-up of capital buffer from the bank’s consistent and robust core earnings, which is comparable to peers, but a notch higher, the report said.
The ratings agency downgraded Taichung Commercial Bank’s (台中商銀) outlook to “negative” due to its deteriorating credit profile and its plan to expand its loan portfolio at a faster pace than the sector average, a development strategy that will pressure its already below-par capitalization, the report said.
Fitch affirmed all ratings of King’s Town Bank (京城銀行) given its steady credit profile, superior earnings and capital generation, prudently maintained asset quality and strong capitalization, the report said.
The ratings of these private banks are driven by their intrinsic credit profile, the report said, adding that their small deposit market share and lack of systemic importance mean the government is less likely to extend support in times of distress.
Fitch expects profitability of the banks to decline from last year’s levels, attributable mainly to rising provisioning risks.
“Credit costs will normalize going forward, from the benign cycle between 2010 and last year,” the report said.
Catalysts for improved profitability remain limited and the banks are vulnerable to a severe property market correction, as they have large property-related exposure, Fitch said.
The banks’ capitalizations vary greatly, but most lag behind peers in the Asia-Pacific region, Fitch said.
The New Taiwan dollar is on the verge of overtaking the yuan as Asia’s best carry-trade target given its lower risk of interest-rate and currency volatility. A strategy of borrowing the New Taiwan dollar to invest in higher-yielding alternatives has generated the second-highest return over the past month among Asian currencies behind the yuan, based on the Sharpe ratio that measures risk-adjusted relative returns. The New Taiwan dollar may soon replace its Chinese peer as the region’s favored carry trade tool, analysts say, citing Beijing’s efforts to support the yuan that can create wild swings in borrowing costs. In contrast,
Nvidia Corp’s demand for advanced packaging from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) remains strong though the kind of technology it needs is changing, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said yesterday, after he was asked whether the company was cutting orders. Nvidia’s most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chip, Blackwell, consists of multiple chips glued together using a complex chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) advanced packaging technology offered by TSMC, Nvidia’s main contract chipmaker. “As we move into Blackwell, we will use largely CoWoS-L. Of course, we’re still manufacturing Hopper, and Hopper will use CowoS-S. We will also transition the CoWoS-S capacity to CoWos-L,” Huang said
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) is expected to miss the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump on Monday, bucking a trend among high-profile US technology leaders. Huang is visiting East Asia this week, as he typically does around the time of the Lunar New Year, a person familiar with the situation said. He has never previously attended a US presidential inauguration, said the person, who asked not to be identified, because the plans have not been announced. That makes Nvidia an exception among the most valuable technology companies, most of which are sending cofounders or CEOs to the event. That includes
INDUSTRY LEADER: TSMC aims to continue outperforming the industry’s growth and makes 2025 another strong growth year, chairman and CEO C.C. Wei says Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday said it aims to grow revenue by about 25 percent this year, driven by robust demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips. That means TSMC would continue to outpace the foundry industry’s 10 percent annual growth this year based on the chipmaker’s estimate. The chipmaker expects revenue from AI-related chips to double this year, extending a three-fold increase last year. The growth would quicken over the next five years at a compound annual growth rate of 45 percent, fueled by strong demand for the high-performance computing
RSS