Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) on Tuesday reported a net profit of NT$6.38 billion (US$221.3 million) for last month, up 53 percent from a month earlier and 2.69 times from a year earlier, as its insurance arm took advantage of global stock market rallies to realize investment gains.
Fubon Life Insurance Co (富邦人壽) posted a net profit of NT$4 billion last month, which accounted for 63 percent of its parent company’s total earnings, as it booked investment gains of NT$5.9 billion, which offset its foreign-exchange losses, company data showed.
Among the nation’s six major life insurers, Fubon Life was the only one that had not set aside additional foreign-exchange volatility reserves as of the end of last month, while major rival Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽) has added NT$7 billion so far this year, the companies’ data showed.
Photo: Kelson Wang, Taipei
With approval from the Financial Supervisory Commission, life insurers can transfer some of their net profits into their forex volatility reserves, a move that could stabilize their foreign-exchange hedging, but would also weaken their profitability.
Fubon Life’s volatility reserves stood at NT$11.4 billion as of the end of June, the highest among all life insurers, according to companies’ filings to the commission.
For the first 10 months of the year, Fubon Life reported an 80 percent gain in net profit to NT$49.3 billion.
This boosted Fubon Financial’s net profit during the same period to NT$74 billion, with earnings per share (EPS) hitting a record NT$7.
The financial conglomerate was followed by Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), which posted a net profit of NT$3.7 billion for last month and NT$68 billion for the first 10 months, or EPS of NT$4.38, company data showed.
Cathay Life, the insurance arm of the nation’s largest financial firm by assets, posted a net profit of NT$2.07 billion for last month, flat from a year earlier, and NT$46.88 billion for the first 10 months, up 43 percent from a year earlier, data showed.
The domestic unit of the Chinese-owned, Dutch-headquartered chipmaker Nexperia BV will soon be able to produce semiconductors locally within China, according to two company sources. Nexperia is at the center of a global tug-of-war over critical semiconductor technology, with a Dutch court in February ordering a probe into alleged mismanagement at the company. The geopolitical tussle has disrupted supply chains, with some carmakers reportedly forced to cut production due to chip shortages. Local production would allow Nexperia’s domestic arm, Nexperia Semiconductors (China) Ltd (安世半導體中國), to bypass restrictions in place since October on the supply of silicon wafers — etched with tiny components to
Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery giant Grab Holdings Ltd has applied for regulatory approval to acquire the Taiwan operations of Germany-based Delivery Hero SE's Foodpanda in a deal valued at about US$600 million. Grab submitted the filing to the Fair Trade Commission on Friday last week, with the transaction subject to regulatory review and approval, the company said in a statement yesterday. Its independent governance structure would help foster a healthy and competitive market in Taiwan if the deal is approved, Grab said. Grab, which is listed on the NASDAQ, said in the filing that US-based Uber Technologies Inc holds about 13 percent of
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday received government approval to deploy its advanced 3-nanometer (3nm) process at its second fab currently under construction in Japan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a news release. The ministry green-lit the plan for the facility in Kumamoto, which is scheduled to start installing equipment and come online in 2028 with a monthly production capacity of 15,000 12-inch wafers, the ministry said. The Department of Investment Review in June 2024 authorized a US$5.26 billion investment for the facility, slated to manufacture 6- to 12nm chips, significantly less advanced than 3nm process. At a meeting with
Taiwan’s food delivery market could undergo a major shift if Singapore-based Grab Holdings Ltd completes its planned acquisition of Delivery Hero SE’s Foodpanda business in Taiwan, industry experts said. Grab on Monday last week announced it would acquire Foodpanda’s Taiwan operations for US$600 million. The deal is expected to be finalized in the second half of this year, with Grab aiming to complete user migration to its platform by the first half of next year. A duopoly between Uber Eats and Foodpanda dominates Taiwan’s delivery market, a structure that has remained intact since the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) blocked Uber Technologies Inc’s
RSS