Shin Kong Financial Holding Co’s (新光金控) life insurance unit yesterday said that it would increase its Taiwan equities portfolio by between NT$10 billion and NT$15 billion (US$314.74 million and US$472.11 million) in the next 16 months.
Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽) said it has been adjusting its equities portfolio since the end of last year, with current combined positions valued at less than NT$200 billion.
As part of a portfolio adjustment effort that is to persist until the end of this quarter, the insurer has trimmed its holdings of domestic and international equities by about NT$50 billion, Shin Kong Life senior vice president Sunny Hsu (徐順鋆) told an investors’ conference.
“We have trimmed positions in sectors with dimmer immediate prospects, such as printed circuit boards, LED and touch-panel makers,” Hsu said.
“We intend to weigh in on stocks with high cash dividend yields in sectors, including telecommunications, security systems and services providers, as well as utilities,” Hsu said, adding that the company did not reduce financial sector positions such as Hua Nan Financial Holding Co (華南金控).
However, the company’s investment performance remains in the red, with unrealized investment losses of NT$24 billion, compared with NT$30 billion in unrealized losses at the beginning of this year, Hsu said.
The company’s bullish bets on US financial stocks in anticipation of a US Federal Reserve interest rate hike have also strained its earnings, Hsu said.
Regarding the insurer’s risk-based capital (RBC) ratio, which had fallen to 227 percent at the end of the first half, Hsu said the company would issue debentures to raise funds to improve the ratio.
At the end of last month, the RBC ratio improved to 250 percent as the TAIEX moved higher, he said.
A RBC ratio of less than 250 percent tends to trigger regulatory restrictions on investments.
In the first half, Shin Kong Financial reported a net loss of NT$690 million, or losses of NT$0.1 per share, including NT$3.32 billion in losses from Shin Kong Life and a net income of NT$2.22 billion at Shin Kong Commercial Bank (新光銀行).
Shin Kong Life said it is hoping to achieve a 15 percent compound annual growth rate in first-year premium contributions per sales agent after implementing a new training program with the help of international consulting firms.
The insurer said it is planning to have sales agents aged under 30 make up 45 percent of its sales force.
Elon Musk’s lieutenants have reached out to chip industry suppliers, including Applied Materials Inc, Tokyo Electron Ltd and Lam Research Corp, for his envisioned Terafab, early steps in an audacious and likely arduous attempt to break into the production of cutting-edge chips. Staff working for the joint venture between Tesla Inc and Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) have sought price quotes and delivery times for an array of chipmaking gear, people familiar with the matter said. In past weeks, they’ve contacted makers of photomasks, substrates, etchers, depositors, cleaning devices, testers and other tools, according to the people, who asked not to
Taichung reported the steepest fall in completed home prices among the six special municipalities in the first quarter of this year, data compiled by Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) showed yesterday. From January through last month, the average transaction price for completed homes in Taichung fell 8 percent from a year earlier to NT$299,000 (US$9,483) per ping (3.3m²), said Taiwan Realty, which compiled the data based on the government’s price registration platform. The decline could be attributed to many home buyers choosing relatively affordable used homes to live in themselves, instead of newly built homes in the city’s prime property market, Taiwan Realty
JET JUICE: The war on Iran’s secondary effects have seen fuel prices skyrocket, knocking flight schedules down to earth in return as airlines struggle with costs Airline passengers should brace for more irritation in the next few months as carriers worldwide cancel flights and ground planes to cope with stratospheric increases in jet-fuel prices. Dutch flag carrier KLM is the latest company to cut its schedule, saying on Thursday that it would scrap 80 return flights at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport in the coming month. That puts it in the same league as United Airlines Holdings Inc, Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd, which have all pruned itineraries to mitigate costs. Global capacity for next month has been reduced by about 3 percentage points, with all
The government yesterday approved applications by Alphabet Inc’s Google to invest NT$27.08 billion (US$859.98 million) in Taiwan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. The Department of Investment Review approved two investments proposed by Google, with much of the funds to be used for data processing and electronic information supply services, as well as inventory procurement businesses in the semiconductor field, the ministry said. It marks the second consecutive year that Google has applied to increase its investment in Taiwan. Google plans to infuse NT$25.34 billion into Charter Investments Ltd (特許投資顧問) through its Singapore-based subsidiary Fructan Holdings Singapore Pte Ltd, and
RSS