Taiwan’s listed financial holding companies posted a combined net profit of NT$27.99 billion (US$871.3 million) last month, up 213.6 percent from a year earlier, driven by earnings contributed by their banking arms, companies’ regulatory filings showed.
Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) and Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) posted earnings of NT$5.4 billion and NT$4.77 billion respectively, making them the two most profitable financial conglomerates.
Their banking arms Taipei Fubon Bank (台北富邦銀行) and Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) continued to benefit from earlier interest rate hikes at home and abroad, the companies said.
Photo: CNA
In addition, their life insurance subsidiaries, Fubon Life Insurance Co (富邦人壽) and Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽), received a boost in value for their US dollar-based assets at a time when global funds continued to flow to greenback-denominated investment tools that pay higher interest rates.
CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控) reported earnings of NT$4.46 billion last month, ranking third as the company benefited from improving lending, wealth management and credit card operations at its banking subsidiary CTBC Bank (中國信託銀行), the company said.
Its life insurance subsidiary Taiwan Life Insurance Co (台灣人壽) also made significant income contributions from selling assets, CTBC Financial said.
Among the 14 financial holding companies, only Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金) was in the red last month as the company posted a net loss of NT$730 million due to lower investment gains at its subsidiary Taishin Venture Capital Investment Co (台新創投).
Overall, the 14 financial holding companies posted a combined net profit of NT$339.44 billion in the first nine months of the year, representing an 8.3 percent increase from a year earlier, as the sector emerged from COVID-19 pandemic insurance claims.
The figures might exceed the NT$400 billion mark this year in the absence of black swan events, analysts said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) last week recorded an increase in the number of shareholders to the highest in almost eight months, despite its share price falling 3.38 percent from the previous week, Taiwan Stock Exchange data released on Saturday showed. As of Friday, TSMC had 1.88 million shareholders, the most since the week of April 25 and an increase of 31,870 from the previous week, the data showed. The number of shareholders jumped despite a drop of NT$50 (US$1.59), or 3.38 percent, in TSMC’s share price from a week earlier to NT$1,430, as investors took profits from their earlier gains
In a high-security Shenzhen laboratory, Chinese scientists have built what Washington has spent years trying to prevent: a prototype of a machine capable of producing the cutting-edge semiconductor chips that power artificial intelligence (AI), smartphones and weapons central to Western military dominance, Reuters has learned. Completed early this year and undergoing testing, the prototype fills nearly an entire factory floor. It was built by a team of former engineers from Dutch semiconductor giant ASML who reverse-engineered the company’s extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines, according to two people with knowledge of the project. EUV machines sit at the heart of a technological Cold
Taiwan’s long-term economic competitiveness will hinge not only on national champions like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) but also on the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies, a US-based scholar has said. At a lecture in Taipei on Tuesday, Jeffrey Ding, assistant professor of political science at the George Washington University and author of "Technology and the Rise of Great Powers," argued that historical experience shows that general-purpose technologies (GPTs) — such as electricity, computers and now AI — shape long-term economic advantages through their diffusion across the broader economy. "What really matters is not who pioneers
TAIWAN VALUE CHAIN: Foxtron is to fully own Luxgen following the transaction and it plans to launch a new electric model, the Foxtron Bria, in Taiwan next year Yulon Motor Co (裕隆汽車) yesterday said that its board of directors approved the disposal of its electric vehicle (EV) unit, Luxgen Motor Co (納智捷汽車), to Foxtron Vehicle Technologies Co (鴻華先進) for NT$787.6 million (US$24.98 million). Foxtron, a half-half joint venture between Yulon affiliate Hua-Chuang Automobile Information Technical Center Co (華創車電) and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), expects to wrap up the deal in the first quarter of next year. Foxtron would fully own Luxgen following the transaction, including five car distributing companies, outlets and all employees. The deal is subject to the approval of the Fair Trade Commission, Foxtron said. “Foxtron will be