CTBC Bank Co (中信銀行) might record slower growth in its mortgage business this year as central bank rate hikes and selective credit controls affect the local real-estate market, CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控) president James Chen (陳佳文) said yesterday.
CTBC Bank's mortgages rose 13.7 percent year-on-year to NT$974 billion (US$31.61 billion) in the first quarter of this year, the second-largest kind within its loan pipeline after foreign currency-denominated lending of NT$1.15 trillion, it told an investors’ conference in Taipei.
Chen said that whole-year mortgage growth is expected to be lower than last year, increasing by a single-digit percentage, as the real-estate market is on a downward trend.
Photo: Lee Ching-hui, Taipei Times
However, as CTBC Bank has concentrated on providing home loans to civil servants and teachers, its mortgage quality remains solid, he said.
CTBC Bank’s net profit rose 52.9 percent from a year earlier to NT$11.36 billion in the first quarter, making up 88 percent of its parent company’s net profit. The bank's net profit grew 37.9 percent from the previous quarter.
Chen said the bank’s overseas branches contributed 35 percent to CTBC Bank’s net profit in the first quarter, supported by strong growth in Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand.
As the bank has large US dollar deposits, it earned more interest income with the US Federal Reserve hiking rates, while corporate lending in Thailand also showed marked growth as Taiwanese companies continued to shift their operations away from China to Southeast Asia, he said.
In the first quarter, CTBC Financial reported net profit of NT$12.96 billion, down 20.5 percent from a year ago. On a quarterly basis, net profit surged by 1,528.3 percent. Earnings per share were NT$0.66 in the quarter.
The company's life insurance unit, Taiwan Life Insurance Co (台灣人壽), remained in the red in the first quarter with net losses of NT$882 million. But the figure was down 21 percent from a year earlier, CTBC Financial said, adding that the insurer has passed the worst after COVID-19 insurance claims caused greater chaos for the sector last year.
Meanwhile, CTBC Financial plans to expand CTBC Finance Co’s (中國信託資融) business from car loans to “buy now, pay later” and corporate lending operations, to enhance its competitiveness, while CTBC Insurance Co (中國信託產險) plans to raise NT$5 billion later this month to boost its risk-based capital ratio to 200 percent, he said.
Overall, CTBC Financial is expected to report better profit this year than last year, he said.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
Hong Kong authorities ramped up sales of the local dollar as the greenback’s slide threatened the foreign-exchange peg. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) sold a record HK$60.5 billion (US$7.8 billion) of the city’s currency, according to an alert sent on its Bloomberg page yesterday in Asia, after it tested the upper end of its trading band. That added to the HK$56.1 billion of sales versus the greenback since Friday. The rapid intervention signals efforts from the city’s authorities to limit the local currency’s moves within its HK$7.75 to HK$7.85 per US dollar trading band. Heavy sales of the local dollar by
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
An Indonesian animated movie is smashing regional box office records and could be set for wider success as it prepares to open beyond the Southeast Asian archipelago’s silver screens. Jumbo — a film based on the adventures of main character, Don, a large orphaned Indonesian boy facing bullying at school — last month became the highest-grossing Southeast Asian animated film, raking in more than US$8 million. Released at the end of March to coincide with the Eid holidays after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, the movie has hit 8 million ticket sales, the third-highest in Indonesian cinema history, Film
RSS