State-run Chang Hwa Commercial Bank (CHB, 彰化銀行) said yesterday it is looking at stable profit growth this year on the back of improving loan demand, as exports and private investments come out of the woods after several quarters of inventory adjustments.
“We aim to increase outstanding loans by 3 to 5 percent this year, faster than last year’s 3.9 percent advance,” CHB spokeswoman Wang Shwu-fang (王淑芬) told an investors’ conference in Taipei.
Taiwanese firms would display more interest in capital spending and capacity expansion, as exports steadily emerge from technology product adjustments, Wang said.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
The lender reported that net income last year grew 18.33 percent year-on-year to NT$12.98 billion (US$406.95 million), or earnings per share of NT$1.2.
Net interest margin shed 2 basis points to 0.82 percent at the end of last year, as high borrowing costs curbed loan demand.
Taiwan’s interest rate remains quite low compared with that of the US, which is favorable for foreign exchange swaps, a major profit driver in recent years and hopefully in the first half of this year, Wang said.
CHB expects the US Federal Reserve to start cutting interest rates in June to avoid an economic hard landing, she said.
As for investments, the lender said it would raise its stake in US bonds in batches to expand fixed income, and increase holdings in stocks that pay generous cash dividends and support environmental protection and social responsibility.
While focusing on corporate banking, CHB is looking to gain market share in mortgage operations and land financing, it said.
Property development might slow slightly this year, but housing transactions would pick up, buoyed by first-home purchases to take advantage of the government’s interest subsidy, it said.
Developers are likely to slow new project launches and prioritize digesting unsold houses, as authorities have no intention of easing credit controls, CHB said, adding that it would still focus on urban renewal projects this year.
CHB is seeking to boost profit contributions from overseas to 30 percent this year, from 11 percent last year, Wang said.
Its branch in Hong Kong is expected to generate the largest pre-provision income, followed by branches in the US and Singapore, she said.
CHB on Monday opened a new branch in Japan and plans to set up new branches in Canada’s Toronto, Australia’s Sydney and in Southeast Asia, she added.
Elon Musk’s lieutenants have reached out to chip industry suppliers, including Applied Materials Inc, Tokyo Electron Ltd and Lam Research Corp, for his envisioned Terafab, early steps in an audacious and likely arduous attempt to break into the production of cutting-edge chips. Staff working for the joint venture between Tesla Inc and Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) have sought price quotes and delivery times for an array of chipmaking gear, people familiar with the matter said. In past weeks, they’ve contacted makers of photomasks, substrates, etchers, depositors, cleaning devices, testers and other tools, according to the people, who asked not to
Taichung reported the steepest fall in completed home prices among the six special municipalities in the first quarter of this year, data compiled by Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) showed yesterday. From January through last month, the average transaction price for completed homes in Taichung fell 8 percent from a year earlier to NT$299,000 (US$9,483) per ping (3.3m²), said Taiwan Realty, which compiled the data based on the government’s price registration platform. The decline could be attributed to many home buyers choosing relatively affordable used homes to live in themselves, instead of newly built homes in the city’s prime property market, Taiwan Realty
The government yesterday approved applications by Alphabet Inc’s Google to invest NT$27.08 billion (US$859.98 million) in Taiwan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. The Department of Investment Review approved two investments proposed by Google, with much of the funds to be used for data processing and electronic information supply services, as well as inventory procurement businesses in the semiconductor field, the ministry said. It marks the second consecutive year that Google has applied to increase its investment in Taiwan. Google plans to infuse NT$25.34 billion into Charter Investments Ltd (特許投資顧問) through its Singapore-based subsidiary Fructan Holdings Singapore Pte Ltd, and
JET JUICE: The war on Iran’s secondary effects have seen fuel prices skyrocket, knocking flight schedules down to earth in return as airlines struggle with costs Airline passengers should brace for more irritation in the next few months as carriers worldwide cancel flights and ground planes to cope with stratospheric increases in jet-fuel prices. Dutch flag carrier KLM is the latest company to cut its schedule, saying on Thursday that it would scrap 80 return flights at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport in the coming month. That puts it in the same league as United Airlines Holdings Inc, Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd, which have all pruned itineraries to mitigate costs. Global capacity for next month has been reduced by about 3 percentage points, with all
RSS