State-owned Taiwan Financial Holding Co (台灣金控) is evaluating investment opportunities in southeast Asia, where Taiwanese firms have made significant inroads in recent years, to tap the region’s fast-growing economy, company chairwoman Lee Jih-chu (李紀珠) said yesterday.
“We are evaluating investments in emerging markets such as Cambodia, Indonesia and Thailand,” Lee told reporters at an annual news conference on the company’s development plans.
The conglomerate is considering expansions through share investments or acquisitions, as authorities in those nations frown on the establishment of foreign banking branches, Lee added.
Photo: Lu Kuan-chang, Taipei Times
Primary subsidiary Bank of Taiwan (台灣銀行), the nation’s largest lender, is to open a representative office in Mumbai, India, later this year and is studying the possibility of setting up offices in Australia and Myanmar, Lee said.
In addition, the bank-focused holding company has established a task force to take charge of drawing up expansion plans in the Chinese market, Lee said.
Bank of Taiwan maintains one branch in Shanghai and is to open its second — in Guangzhou — next quarter.
The lender intends to upgrade its branches into a subsidiary, but will have to first overcome stricter Chinese deposit-to-loan ratio requirements, Lee said.
Domestically, the bank will turn more cautious in dealing with mortgage operations, given dwindling property deals and widening room for price concessions, Lee added.
“We plan to raise interest rates, as well as tighten payment terms and grace periods, among other measures, to lower credit risks,” Lee said.
The conglomerate posted NT$8.55 billion (US$272 million) in pretax income last year, the highest in five years, company data showed.
The figures would more than double to NT$20.75 billion, if the company did not have to support various government policies, Taiwan Financial said.
The banking unit earned NT$9.41 billion in pretax income last year, the highest since 2001, it added.
In related news, state-run Mega International Commercial Bank (兆豐國際商銀), the main subsidiary of Mega Financial Holdings Co (兆豐金控), yesterday opened its second branch in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, in a continued bid to boost operating efficiency, the bank said in a statement.
Toward that end, Mega International Commercial Bank has filed applications to set up subbranches in the Cambodian capital, aiming to own one branch and three subbranches to better serve customers in the emerging market, the statement added.
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