Taiwan Ratings Corp (中華信評) yesterday placed Prudential Life Insurance Inc’s local unit under credit watch with negative implications, as the US-based group considers re-evaluating its global business strategy and selling the Taiwanese subsidiary.
The adjustment came after Taiwan Ratings, the local arm of Standard & Poor’s Global Ratings, called into question the credit profile and strength of Prudential Life Insurance Co of Taiwan (保德信人壽), if it were to no longer receive support from its parent company.
“The [credit watch] placement reflects the increasing uncertainty over Prudential Taiwan’s creditworthiness given our view that the US-based parent group may re-evaluate the strategic importance and ownership structure of the Taiwan subsidiary,” Taiwan Ratings said in a note.
The re-evaluation could lead to a change in Taiwan’s strategic position and a potential disposal, it said.
“We therefore place Prudential Taiwan on credit watch with negative implications,” it said.
The local unit is currently assigned a long-term issuer credit rating of “twAAA.”
Taiwan Ratings said it would resolve the credit watch placement after analyzing the impact of any change in its status.
The agency might lower its rating by one or more notches if it sees a greater possibility that the group would pull out of the Taiwanese market, thereby weakening the local unit’s ties with the US headquarters, it added.
Taiwanese suppliers to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) are expected to follow the contract chipmaker’s step to invest in the US, but their relocation may be seven to eight years away, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. When asked by opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) in the legislature about growing concerns that TSMC’s huge investments in the US will prompt its suppliers to follow suit, Kuo said based on the chipmaker’s current limited production volume, it is unlikely to lead its supply chain to go there for now. “Unless TSMC completes its planned six
Intel Corp has named Tasha Chuang (莊蓓瑜) to lead Intel Taiwan in a bid to reinforce relations between the company and its Taiwanese partners. The appointment of Chuang as general manager for Intel Taiwan takes effect on Thursday, the firm said in a statement yesterday. Chuang is to lead her team in Taiwan to pursue product development and sales growth in an effort to reinforce the company’s ties with its partners and clients, Intel said. Chuang was previously in charge of managing Intel’s ties with leading Taiwanese PC brand Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), which included helping Asustek strengthen its global businesses, the company
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said second-quarter revenue is expected to surpass the first quarter, which rose 30 percent year-on-year to NT$118.92 billion (US$3.71 billion). Revenue this quarter is likely to grow, as US clients have front-loaded orders ahead of US President Donald Trump’s planned tariffs on Taiwanese goods, Delta chairman Ping Cheng (鄭平) said at an earnings conference in Taipei, referring to the 90-day pause in tariff implementation Trump announced on April 9. While situations in the third and fourth quarters remain unclear, “We will not halt our long-term deployments and do not plan to
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
RSS