Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) aims to maintain a stable dividend distribution this year despite diminished net profits last year, using its retained earning of about NT$120 billion (US$3.9 billion) for the payout, the company told an investors’ conference in Taipei yesterday.
The company’s net profit plunged 67.5 percent year-on-year to NT$46.92 billion last year, or earnings per share of NT$3.54, down from NT$11.89 a year earlier.
A final decision on a dividend payout for this year has not been made, but it would be announced next month, Fubon Financial president Jerry Harn (韓蔚廷) said.
Photo: Wu Hsin-tien, Taipei Times
“Shareholders are not the only stakeholders we should take care of, but they are our most important stakeholders. We are aware of their expectations of a good dividend, and we cannot ignore them,” Harn said.
Meanwhile, the collapses of some US banks and troubles at Credit Suisse Group AG have continued to feed fears about any spillover risks to the global banking system, and the Financial Supervisory Commission has emphasized that it would closely monitor the follow-up development.
The commission yesterday said the nation's banking, insurance and securities sectors have a combined exposure of NT$157.297 billion to Credit Suisse, with the insurance sector holding the most at more than NT$100 billion.
Harn said Fubon Financial has an overall exposure of about NT$11 billion to the troubled Swiss bank, mainly through its subsidiary Fubon Life Insurance Co (富邦人壽), but the company does not plan to recognize losses from its investment yet, he said.
Credit Suisse is still healthy given its sound financial metrics, such as capital adequacy and liquidity, Harn said, adding that the Swiss central bank has promised to offer a lifeline for Credit Suisse.
Fubon Financial has no exposure to four troubled banks in the US, namely Silicon Valley Bank, Silvergate Bank, Signature Bank and First Republic Bank, he added.
Separately, Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank (台北富邦銀行) has issued about 500,000 co-branded credit cards with warehouse club Costco Wholesale Taiwan Ltd (台灣好市多) since Feb. 1, Fubon Financial said.
In Taiwan, a credit card is considered “strong” in the local market if it attracts more than 20,000 applicants in one month, and Taipei Fubon expects its co-branded credit card applications to surge in August, when the card becomes available at Costco stores, the company said.
ADVANCED: Previously, Taiwanese chip companies were restricted from building overseas fabs with technology less than two generations behind domestic factories Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp, would no longer be restricted from investing in next-generation 2-nanometer chip production in the US, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. However, the ministry added that the world’s biggest contract chipmaker would not be making any reckless decisions, given the weight of its up to US$30 billion investment. To safeguard Taiwan’s chip technology advantages, the government has barred local chipmakers from making chips using more advanced technologies at their overseas factories, in China particularly. Chipmakers were previously only allowed to produce chips using less advanced technologies, specifically
The New Taiwan dollar is on the verge of overtaking the yuan as Asia’s best carry-trade target given its lower risk of interest-rate and currency volatility. A strategy of borrowing the New Taiwan dollar to invest in higher-yielding alternatives has generated the second-highest return over the past month among Asian currencies behind the yuan, based on the Sharpe ratio that measures risk-adjusted relative returns. The New Taiwan dollar may soon replace its Chinese peer as the region’s favored carry trade tool, analysts say, citing Beijing’s efforts to support the yuan that can create wild swings in borrowing costs. In contrast,
TARIFF SURGE: The strong performance could be attributed to the growing artificial intelligence device market and mass orders ahead of potential US tariffs, analysts said The combined revenue of companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange and the Taipei Exchange for the whole of last year totaled NT$44.66 trillion (US$1.35 trillion), up 12.8 percent year-on-year and hit a record high, data compiled by investment consulting firm CMoney showed on Saturday. The result came after listed firms reported a 23.92 percent annual increase in combined revenue for last month at NT$4.1 trillion, the second-highest for the month of December on record, and posted a 15.63 percent rise in combined revenue for the December quarter at NT$12.25 billion, the highest quarterly figure ever, the data showed. Analysts attributed the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) quarterly sales topped estimates, reinforcing investor hopes that the torrid pace of artificial intelligence (AI) hardware spending would extend into this year. The go-to chipmaker for Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc reported a 39 percent rise in December-quarter revenue to NT$868.5 billion (US$26.35 billion), based on calculations from monthly disclosures. That compared with an average estimate of NT$854.7 billion. The strong showing from Taiwan’s largest company bolsters expectations that big tech companies from Alphabet Inc to Microsoft Corp would continue to build and upgrade datacenters at a rapid clip to propel AI development. Growth accelerated for
RSS