State-run Mega Financial Holding Co (兆豐金控) aims to grow its core businesses this year, despite an increasingly unfavorable operating environment caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and aggressive rate cuts by central banks around the world, top-ranking executives said yesterday.
The company seeks to improve its profitability by increasing fee incomes and cross-selling effects at different units, as well as deepening cooperation with other state-run financial institutions, Mega Financial president David Hu (胡光華) told an online conference with investors.
The efforts are expected to boost revenue by 9.31 percent annually, Hu said.
The company reported that net profit rose 3.1 percent to NT$28.96 billion (US$955.52 million) last year, or earnings per share of NT$2.13, as investment and trading incomes soared 64 percent to NT$17.73 billion, which more than offset the slowdown in interest and fee incomes, Hu said.
Mega International Commercial Bank (兆豐銀行) president Robert Tsai (蔡永義) said that the pandemic has so far had little impact on its lending operation or asset quality as most clients are large corporations with sufficient liquidity.
Efforts in the past few years to prevent money-laundering helped strengthen asset quality, Tsai said, adding that Mega Bank also lowered its exposure to China amid US-China trade tensions to rein in risks.
However, Mega Bank in February increased its provision costs by NT$500 million for taking part in a troubled syndicated loan to Powtec ElectroChemical Corp (寶德能源), which filed for bankruptcy.
The lender has the greatest exposure to Powtec at NT$2 billion, compared with other state-run banks.
Mega Financial in the first two months of this year generated NT$3.49 billion in net income, or earnings of NT$0.26 per share.
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