Chailese Holding Co (中租控股), the nation’s top leasing services provider, is standing by its loan growth target for this year, after first-quarter revenue and profit hit record highs for the period.
The company posted NT$3.03 billion (US$101.8 million) in net income during the January-to-March period, up 40.7 percent from a year earlier, as loan demand proved strong despite a low season, the company told an investors’ conference on Wednesday last week.
The results translated into earnings per share of NT$2.40, compared with NT$1.71 in the same period last year.
Consolidated revenue for last quarter grew 23 percent annually to NT$11.5 billion, as Taiwan, China and ASEAN markets saw revenues grow by 9 percent, 38 percent and 25 percent respectively from a year ago.
“We will stand by our growth forecast for this year, because we need to make sure that the growth momentum can be sustained,” said a company official, who declined to be named.
The Taipei-based company has set its overall loan growth target at 10 percent for this year, whereas loan growth in China and ASEAN markets might see a pickup of 15 to 20 percent from last year.
“Let’s wait until the end of this quarter to see if adjustments are necessary,” the official said.
In the first quarter, the company registered loan growth of 11.4 percent in Taiwan, 32.4 percent in China and 21.7 percent in the ASEAN region.
Chailease said an increase in total loans allowed its receivable and fee income balance to improve.
In particular, loan demand by small and medium-sized enterprises in China grew faster than expected, bucking traditional seasonality, the company said.
Despite the increase in loans last quarter, the company saw asset quality improvement in all regions, as the delinquincy rate dropped to 3.3 percent in Taiwan and 2.9 percent in China, while bad debt provision expenses fell 33.3 percent year-on-year to NT$810 million.
Chailease shares closed at NT$112 on Friday last week in Taipei trading, up 2.83 percent for the week and 25.87 percent this year.
Considering the company’s better-than-expected first-quarter results during the low season and recovering capital demand amid an improving economy, coupled with its persistent improvement of asset quality and a decrease in bad debt provision, Capital Investment Management Corp (群益投顧) forecast that Chailease’s earnings per share could grow further this year from last year’s NT$7.64.
In an investment note on Thursday last week, Capital Investment maintained its 12-month target price for Chailease’s shares at NT$125, valuing the stock at 13.75 times its estimated earnings per share of NT$9.09 this year.
“We see further upside to the valuation of Chailease,” Capital Investment analyst Sean Yang (楊軒一) said in the note.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
FACTORY SHIFT: While Taiwan produces most of the world’s AI servers, firms are under pressure to move manufacturing amid geopolitical tensions Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) started building artificial intelligence (AI) servers in India’s south, the latest boon for the rapidly growing country’s push to become a high-tech powerhouse. The company yesterday said it has started making the large, powerful computers in Pondicherry, southeastern India, moving beyond products such as laptops and smartphones. The Chinese company would also build out its facilities in the Bangalore region, including a research lab with a focus on AI. Lenovo’s plans mark another win for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who tries to attract more technology investment into the country. While India’s tense relationship with China has suffered setbacks
RSS