Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) retained the title as the top earner among the 15 listed financial holding companies in Taiwan in the first four months of this year, market data showed on Saturday.
According to the data, Fubon Financial posted NT$16.69 billion (US$554 million) in net profit, or NT$1.63 in earnings per share (EPS), from January to last month.
That was higher than the NT$12.42 billion in net profit or NT$1.30 in EPS recorded over the same period last year.
Market analysts said Fubon Financial benefited from profit growth generated by its flagship banking and life insurance subsidiaries — Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank (台北富邦銀行) and Fubon Life Insurance Co (富邦人壽) — to maintain its lead in the local financial sector.
Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) came in second by reporting NT$15.4 billion in net profit or NT$1.28 after Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽) and Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) posted more than NT$15 billion in combined net profit in the four-month period.
Mega Financial Holding Co (兆豐金控) took third place in profitability during this period by reporting NT$10.57 billion, up almost 30 percent from a year earlier, with EPS at NT$0.85.
The three financial holding companies were the only ones among the 15 listed financial holding firms to report a net profit of more than NT$10 billion in the first four months of the year.
During this period, the 15 financial holding companies posted NT$88.7 billion in net profit, up 18.41 percent year-on-year, the data showed.
However, last month alone, the companies reported a 22.78 percent decline from March, affected by a decline in local bourse as well as non-economic factors, such as protests against the cross-strait service trade agreement and opposition to the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮), analysts said.
They added that as financial authorities have tightened their monitoring on trading of financial derivatives, certain financial institutions which have large derivative trading portfolios have felt the impact.
In the past four months, Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控) took fourth place in profitability with NT$0.77 in EPS. It was ahead of CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控) and E.Sun Financial Holding Co (玉山金控), which enjoyed NT$0.66 in EPS each, First Financial Holdings Co (第一金控) with NT$0.58 and SinoPac Financial Holdings Co (永豐金控) with NT$0.44, data showed.
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