CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控) and SinoPac Financial Holdings Co (永豐金控) are looking to achieve record-high earnings this year on the back of improving loan demand, trading gains and foreign exchange benefits.
“Full-year income should ascend to an all-time high, although the profit momentum might slow this quarter from three months earlier,” CTBC Financial president James Chen (陳佳文) told an investors’ conference.
Chen gave the positive outlook after the conglomerate logged a net income of NT$19.8 billion (US$612.4 million) in the July-to-September quarter, the best ever thanks to rising loan demand, dividend incomes and foreign exchange benefits, he said.
Photo : Lee Chin-hui, Taipei Times
Overseas banking branches generated NT$15.1 billion in pretax income, even after stripping offshore banking business, Chen said, adding that the figures represented a 32 percent pickup from a year earlier.
ASEAN emerged as the biggest growth driver, as an ongoing supply chain reorganization led Taiwanese firms to shift manufacturing bases away from China to Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore, he said.
Pretax income in ASEAN alone amounted to NT$5 billion, or a 57 percent spike from a year earlier, Chen said.
Photo: Kelson Wang, Taipei Times
Hong Kong also put up a fast recovery of more than 30 percent, he said.
Taiwan Life Insurance Co (台灣人壽保險), CTBC Financial’s life insurance arm, booked NT$9.8 billion in net income on the back of dividend incomes, value gains in US dollar-based assets and trading profits, he said.
Most Taiwanese companies issue dividends in July and August, bolstering earnings for their major institutional investors in the third quarter.
Investment gains in the first three quarters soared 181 percent to NT$14.5 billion, as financial markets at home and abroad gradually came out of last year’s bearish sentiment caused by global inflation and monetary tightening.
Against this backdrop, the group’s venture capital and lottery operating units contributed to earnings, Chen said.
Likewise, the banking-focused SinoPac Financial told investors that its net income had risen 21.7 percent to a new peak of NT$15.75 billion in the first nine months, or earnings per share of NT$1.29.
SinoPac Financial president Stanley Chu (朱士廷) attributed the robust performance to trading gains and a recovery in stock investments that uplifted commission fees at its brokerage subsidiary, SinoPac Securities Co (永豐金證券).
Other net incomes almost doubled year-on-year to NT$10.94 billion due to solid improvement in capital gains, Chu said.
SinoPac Financial would distribute higher cash and stock dividends, likely about NT$1 per share next time, compared with a combined NT$0.9 per share from last year’s earnings, he said.
Further, SinoPac employees could expect generous year-end bonuses ahead of the Lunar New Year, amounting to four to six months’ wages last year, Chu said.
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