Chailease Holding Co Ltd (中租控股), the nation’s top leasing services provider, plans to tap the solar energy and airplane engine leasing markets in Europe, while pressing ahead with expansion plans in China and Southeast Asia.
“Although Europe is still endeavoring to recover from the 2008 global financial crisis, it promises great business potential in solar energy development and airplane engine leasing,” Chailease Group chairman Andre Koo (辜仲立) told reporters in Hualien.
Chailease Group, which owns Chailease Holding and Grand Pacific Investment & Development Holding Co (中實控股), plans to boost its cooperation with Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd to explore the capital leasing market in Europe, Koo said.
Chailease has set up a London office that might start to generate revenue from next month, he said.
Since Europe is much more advanced in capital leasing and solar energy development, Chailease intends to lay a solid foundation and then copy the business model it uses there to other markets later on, said Koo, the youngest son of CTBC Financial Holding Co’s (中信金控) founder Jeffrey Koo Sr (辜濂松), who died in December 2012.
However, the company is delaying plans to expand in Italy, where the economy has stalled, and needs to conduct further studies before taking action, likely in the second half of next year, Andre Koo said.
Impressed by the degree of advancement in the biotechnology business in Switzerland, the group has a strong interest in expanding into that area in Europe, he said.
Chailease also plans to expand its penetration in China and Southeast Asia, chairman Albert Chen (陳鳳龍) said, adding that it is on track to add four outlets in China next year in Shanghai, Quanzhou, Nantong and Yangzhou.
“Despite the ongoing slowdown, GDP growth remains high in China,” suggesting stable loan demand, particularly from small and medium-sized enterprises, Chen said.
Having recently set up a joint venture in Malaysia, the company plans to enter Cambodia and the Philippines soon, Chen said.
Chailease plans to spend NT$5.5 million (US$167,417) on energy conservation efforts at its headquarters in Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖) and offer funding to help other firms to do the same, Chen said, with the customers passing their energy savings to Chailease in exchange.
Chailease on Tuesday reported third-quarter net profit rose 1 percent to NT$1.73 billion from the previous quarter, with earnings per share of NT$1.52.
Consolidated sales increased 2 percent sequentially to NT$9.3 billion last quarter, the company said.
The company said its total loan portfolio expanded to NT$225.61 billion last quarter, but its overall delinquency ratio rose from 3.8 percent to 4.1 percent, which it attributed to rising delinquencies in Taiwan and China, along with weakening economic situations across the Taiwan Strait.
The company was conservative on its operations in Thailand, expecting earnings to remain flat this quarter. However, it said its overall loan portfolio would maintain a 15 percent annual growth this year.
Additional reporting by Ted Chen
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