SinoPac Financial Holdings Co (永豐金控) yesterday said that net profit increased 24.1 percent from a year earlier to NT$3.12 billion (US$100.87 million) in the third quarter, the highest level since the first quarter of 2015, as its core operations improved.
Cumulative net profit in the first nine months of this year reached NT$7.88 billion, a 15.23 percent increase from a year earlier, with earnings per share of NT$0.7, company officials told an investors’ conference.
Bank SinoPac (永豐銀行) remained the conglomerate’s most profitable subsidiary, with NT$7.69 billion in net profit for the first nine months, up 27 percent from the same period last year, company figures showed.
While the bank accounted for 97.5 percent of total profit, SinoPac Securities Corp (永豐金證券) reported NT$578 million in net profit as of September, an annual increase of 16 percent.
Wealth management fee income picked up 8.8 percent in the third quarter, while lending-related fee income gained 16.57 percent from a year earlier, thanks to healthy business growth in corporate and retail banking, the firm said.
In contrast, credit card fee income dropped 18 percent to NT$127 million in the third quarter from a year earlier, while fee income declined 6.2 percent, or NT$1.06 billion, company data showed.
Credit card fee income declined in the third quarter as the bank increased rewards for cardholders, which weighed on income, but helped attract new clients, Bank SinoPac president Eric Chuang (莊銘福) said.
SinoPac Securities, the nation’s fourth-largest brokerage house, said that fee income in the third quarter slowed as daily turnover dropped on the local bourse, but it helped nine companies with initial public offerings and might counsel three more firms on the matter by the end of the year.
Total fee income reached NT$2.56 billion in the third quarter, which the conglomerate said accounted for 24 percent of its total revenue.
Describing fee income as “stable revenue,” SinoPac Financial managing director Stanley Chu (朱士延) said that the financial market would see greater uncertainty next year due to a US-China trade war, but added that he aims to increase total fee income.
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