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.
Nissan Motor Co has agreed to sell its global headquarters in Yokohama for ￥97 billion (US$630 million) to a group sponsored by Taiwanese autoparts maker Minth Group (敏實集團), as the struggling automaker seeks to shore up its financial position. The acquisition is led by a special purchase company managed by KJR Management Ltd, a Japanese real-estate unit of private equity giant KKR & Co, people familiar with the matter said. KJR said it would act as asset manager together with Mizuho Real Estate Management Co. Nissan is undergoing a broad cost-cutting campaign by eliminating jobs and shuttering plants as it grapples
TEMPORARY TRUCE: China has made concessions to ease rare earth trade controls, among others, while Washington holds fire on a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods China is effectively suspending implementation of additional export controls on rare earth metals and terminating investigations targeting US companies in the semiconductor supply chain, the White House announced. The White House on Saturday issued a fact sheet outlining some details of the trade pact agreed to earlier in the week by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) that aimed to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Under the deal, China is to issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite “for the benefit of US end users and their suppliers
Dutch chipmaker Nexperia BV’s China unit yesterday said that it had established sufficient inventories of finished goods and works-in-progress, and that its supply chain remained secure and stable after its parent halted wafer supplies. The Dutch company suspended supplies of wafers to its Chinese assembly plant a week ago, calling it “a direct consequence of the local management’s recent failure to comply with the agreed contractual payment terms,” Reuters reported on Friday last week. Its China unit called Nexperia’s suspension “unilateral” and “extremely irresponsible,” adding that the Dutch parent’s claim about contractual payment was “misleading and highly deceptive,” according to a statement
The Chinese government has issued guidance requiring new data center projects that have received any state funds to only use domestically made artificial intelligence (AI) chips, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. In recent weeks, Chinese regulatory authorities have ordered such data centers that are less than 30 percent complete to remove all installed foreign chips, or cancel plans to purchase them, while projects in a more advanced stage would be decided on a case-by-case basis, the sources said. The move could represent one of China’s most aggressive steps yet to eliminate foreign technology from its critical infrastructure amid a
RSS