Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金), the nation’s second-largest financial service provider by assets, topped its peers’ profitability for the fifth consecutive year last year, despite having significant provisioning costs to meet tighter statutory requirements.
The most profitable conglomerate posted a record NT$32.69 billion (US$1.08 billion) in net income last year, rising 12.8 percent from NT$28.98 billion in 2012, driven mainly by enhanced core businesses at its life insurance and banking subsidiaries, the company said in a statement.
The figures translated into earnings per share (EPS) of NT$3.31, the statement showed.
Regular incomes including cash dividends and interest income underpinned Fubon Life Insurance Co’s (富邦人壽) earnings last year when first year premiums hit NT$212.9 billion, the best among its peers and pushing operating costs higher, the statement said.
Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank (北富銀) recorded a 25 percent pickup in pre-provision income to NT$18.2 billion, thanks to improving interest and fee incomes, the statement said.
The lender set aside a NT$3.9 billion provision last year to raise its general provision above the 1 percent required minimum, the statement said.
Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金) was in second place with a net profit of NT$28.96 billion last year, surging 70.35 percent from a year earlier on the back of unrealized property value gains and reduced hedging costs, according to a company statement.
The results represented an EPS of NT$2.49 last year, even though the conglomerate incurred net losses of NT$290 million last month, attributable chiefly to income tax, the statement showed.
Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽) generated NT$15.45 billion in net profit last year, while Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) contributed NT$14.61 billion, the statement indicated.
The life insurer’s branch in Vietnam returned a profit for the first time last year since its creation in 2008, while losses at its Shanghai branch significantly narrowed, suggesting better performance for overseas operations this year, the statement said.
State-run Mega Financial Holding Co (兆豐金) ranked third with NT$22.48 billion net income last year, rising 4.5 percent from a year earlier, as increased overseas profits offset higher provision costs, the bank-focused group said, adding that the earning results represented an EPS of NT$1.96.
Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金) and CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金) finished in fourth and fifth place last year with an EPS of NT$1.73 and NT$1.5 respectively, the companies said in separate statements.
Taishin Financial recorded NT$13.87 billion in net profit for last year while CTBC Financial filed NT$21.5 billion in net income, according to their statements.
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