IBF Financial Holdings Co (國票金控) yesterday said it is looking at better financial performance ahead, as its securities arm is riding on the TAIEX rallies and its bond holdings would benefit from interest rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve (Fed) later this year.
Its investment in Rakuten International Commercial Bank Co (樂天國際商銀) might also bear fruit faster than expected, after the government allowed online lenders to undertake corporate banking.
The conglomerate shared the views during an online investors’ conference, and its board later approved the distribution of NT$0.73 per share cash dividend on July 15 and a NT$0.246 stock dividend from last year’s net income of NT$2 billion (US$61.6 million), or earnings per share of NT$0.58. Last year’s results suggested a 55 percent spike from a year earlier.
Photo courtesy of IBF Financial Holdings Co
Profitability in the first five months of this year appeared lukewarm at NT$864 million, translating into an earnings per share of NT$0.25, or a tiny 0.28 percent growth from the same period last year, company data showed.
That is because the group’s bond business disappointed, although securities brokering and equities investment put up impressive showings, IBF president Michael Chen (陳冠舟) said.
Stagnant profitability had to do with the central bank’s unexpected interest rate hike in March, which narrowed the interest spread between Taiwan and the US market, Chen said, adding that bond holdings remained weighed by the Fed’s extended restrictive monetary policy.
The situation would brighten moving forward, as the Fed is widely believed to lower interest rates soon, thereby bolstering bond prices, Chen said.
The bond prices have inverse relationships with interest rates.
By contrast, the securities arm saw a 50 percent increase from a year earlier, in terms of commissions, transactions and margin financing, IBF said.
The TAIEX yesterday finished the first half of this year with a 28.4 percent increase to 23,032.25, gathering 5,100 points on the back of capital inflows from investors abroad and at home trying to capitalize on the artificial intelligence (AI) fever.
Taiwanese firms supply AI chips, servers, storage and memory devices.
The group’s bills business also reported a noticeable earnings increase from a year earlier, Chen said.
IBF said it would better leverage its investment in Rakuten Bank, which is to participate in commercial banking, following regulatory permissions.
With a longstanding focus on corporate banking, the conglomerate would lend support and experience to the online bank and speed up its schedule of breaking even, IBF officials said.
At the same time, IBF has set up a leasing subsidiary in hopes of expanding its services to more small and medium-sized enterprises in a more flexible fashion, officials said.
IBF shares ended up 2.22 percent to NT$16.1, higher than the TAIEX’s 0.55 percent rise, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) forecast that its wafer shipments this quarter would grow up to 7 percent sequentially and the factory utilization rate would rise to 75 percent, indicating that customers did not alter their ordering behavior due to the US President Donald Trump’s capricious US tariff policies. However, the uncertainty about US tariffs has weighed on the chipmaker’s business visibility for the second half of this year, UMC chief financial officer Liu Chi-tung (劉啟東) said at an online earnings conference yesterday. “Although the escalating trade tensions and global tariff policies have increased uncertainty in the semiconductor industry, we have not
Intel Corp has named Tasha Chuang (莊蓓瑜) to lead Intel Taiwan in a bid to reinforce relations between the company and its Taiwanese partners. The appointment of Chuang as general manager for Intel Taiwan takes effect on Thursday, the firm said in a statement yesterday. Chuang is to lead her team in Taiwan to pursue product development and sales growth in an effort to reinforce the company’s ties with its partners and clients, Intel said. Chuang was previously in charge of managing Intel’s ties with leading Taiwanese PC brand Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), which included helping Asustek strengthen its global businesses, the company
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said it plans to ship its new 1 megawatt charging systems for electric trucks and buses in the first half of next year at the earliest. The new charging piles, which deliver up to 1 megawatt of charging power, are designed for heavy-duty electric vehicles, and support a maximum current of 1,500 amperes and output of 1,250 volts, Delta said in a news release. “If everything goes smoothly, we could begin shipping those new charging systems as early as in the first half of next year,” a company official said. The new
RSS