Standard Chartered PLC and Prudential PLC announced yesterday that they have struck a 15-year agreement to expand the term and geographic scope of their bancassurance partnership in Asian markets, which includes Taiwan.
The new agreement, which increases coverage from nine markets to 11, will take effect on July 1 to deepen a partnership that formed in 1998, Standard Chartered said in a statement.
Under the new agreement, Standard Chartered will exclusively sell Prudential’s life insurance products through its banking branches in nine markets: Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam and India, the statement said.
In China and South Korea, the British banking group will distribute Prudential’s life insurance products on a preferred basis, the statement said.
The agreement falls in line with “our aspiration to be a leader in growing and protecting the wealth of our clients, with a specific aim to double our assets under management to US$300 billion by 2020,” Standard Chartered chief executive officer Peter Sands said in the statement.
The UK-based bank posted US$6.96 billion in pre-tax profit last year, down 7 percent from US$7.52 billion in 2012, due to market volatility and pressured interest and profit margin, the group said last week. Its subsidiary in Taiwan recorded NT$2.78 billion in pre-tax income last year, falling 22 percent from NT$3.56 billion in 2012, according to Financial Supervisory Commission’s Web site.
Hong Kong, the group’s largest market, increased income by 11 percent and operating profit by 16 percent last year, Standard Chartered said.
Standard Chartered and Prudential have also agreed to explore further opportunities elsewhere in Asia and in Africa, as Prudential aims to expand its presence in emerging markets.
“The business ... with Standard Chartered has achieved significant growth, delivering compound annual sales growth of 19 percent over the last decade,” Prudential chief executive Tidjane Thiam said in the statement.
Although headquartered in London, Standard Chartered strives in Asia, Africa and the Middle East where the group earns about 90 percent of its income and profits.
Taiwanese suppliers to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) are expected to follow the contract chipmaker’s step to invest in the US, but their relocation may be seven to eight years away, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. When asked by opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) in the legislature about growing concerns that TSMC’s huge investments in the US will prompt its suppliers to follow suit, Kuo said based on the chipmaker’s current limited production volume, it is unlikely to lead its supply chain to go there for now. “Unless TSMC completes its planned six
Intel Corp has named Tasha Chuang (莊蓓瑜) to lead Intel Taiwan in a bid to reinforce relations between the company and its Taiwanese partners. The appointment of Chuang as general manager for Intel Taiwan takes effect on Thursday, the firm said in a statement yesterday. Chuang is to lead her team in Taiwan to pursue product development and sales growth in an effort to reinforce the company’s ties with its partners and clients, Intel said. Chuang was previously in charge of managing Intel’s ties with leading Taiwanese PC brand Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), which included helping Asustek strengthen its global businesses, the company
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said second-quarter revenue is expected to surpass the first quarter, which rose 30 percent year-on-year to NT$118.92 billion (US$3.71 billion). Revenue this quarter is likely to grow, as US clients have front-loaded orders ahead of US President Donald Trump’s planned tariffs on Taiwanese goods, Delta chairman Ping Cheng (鄭平) said at an earnings conference in Taipei, referring to the 90-day pause in tariff implementation Trump announced on April 9. While situations in the third and fourth quarters remain unclear, “We will not halt our long-term deployments and do not plan to
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
RSS