SinoPac Financial Holdings Co (永豐金控) said yesterday it needs more time to gauge US president-elect Donald Trump’s upcoming return to the White House, which would have substantial impact on its budget and outlook for the global economy next year.
The bank-focused conglomerate shared a high degree of uncertainty at an investors’ conference yesterday, even though it posted a record profit of NT$20.2 billion (US$621 million) in the first 10 months of this year with its assets growing to NT$3.11 trillion.
“Everyone is talking about and seeking to evaluate the Trump effect,” SinoPac Financial president Stanley Chu (朱士廷) said.
Photo: Kelson Wang, Taipei Times
It is too early to pick winners and losers at this juncture and the company would gain better understanding when it delivers fourth-quarter earnings results next year, he said.
Regardless, SinoPac Financial would press ahead with the effort to speed up digital transformation, business expansion in overseas markets and improvement of customer experiences, Chu said.
In the first three quarters of this year, the company reported net profit of NT$18.5 billion, up 17.7 percent year-on-year and hitting the highest level for the same period on record.
Earnings per share were NT$1.46 for the nine-month period, the company said.
The financial holding company’s main subsidiary Bank SinoPac (永豐銀行) gained 1.8 million digital accounts in last three years and 80 percent did not have prior transactions with the lender, he said.
The new business turned profitable for three consecutive years with assets under management spiking by 80 percent, he added.
Bank SinoPac president Eric Chuang (莊銘福) pointed out that the bank has a branch in Los Angeles, California, and would lend support to Taiwanese firms with loan demand there.
Taiwanese firms could avoid higher tariffs threatened by the upcoming Trump administration by setting up manufacturing bases in the US, he said.
While US government bond yields have climbed noticeably following Trump’s electoral victory, Bank SinoPac would prefer not to adjust its holdings until things shed better clarity, Chuang said.
Foreign currency swap gains in the first three quarters of this year amounted NT$5.4 billion and Bank SinoPac expects a better chance of upside surprises when market volatility escalates, he said.
In the first three quarters, the bank posted net profit of NT$14.43 billion, up 13.7 percent year-on-year and marking the best result for the same period in the bank’s history.
The holding company’s brokerage arm SinoPac Securities Co (永豐金證券), which increased its number of customers by 20 percent during the first three quarters, also has a positive outlook for the local bourse.
It said the TAIEX may rally to 25,000 in the first half of next year before listed companies distribute their cash dividends from their year-ago earnings.
SinoPac Securities posted net profit of NT$4.54 billion, an annual increase of 48.4 percent and also the best for the same period on record, it said.
EXTRATERRITORIAL REACH: China extended its legal jurisdiction to ban some dual-use goods of Chinese origin from being sold to the US, even by third countries Beijing has set out to extend its domestic laws across international borders with a ban on selling some goods to the US that applies to companies both inside and outside China. The new export control rules are China’s first attempt to replicate the extraterritorial reach of US and European sanctions by covering Chinese products or goods with Chinese parts in them. In an announcement this week, China declared it is banning the sale of dual-use items to the US military and also the export to the US of materials such as gallium and germanium. Companies and people overseas would be subject to
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) founder Morris Chang (張忠謀) yesterday said that Intel Corp would find itself in the same predicament as it did four years ago if its board does not come up with a core business strategy. Chang made the remarks in response to reporters’ questions about the ailing US chipmaker, once an archrival of TSMC, during a news conference in Taipei for the launch of the second volume of his autobiography. Intel unexpectedly announced the immediate retirement of former chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger last week, ending his nearly four-year tenure and ending his attempts to revive the
WORLD DOMINATION: TSMC’s lead over second-placed Samsung has grown as the latter faces increased Chinese competition and the end of clients’ product life cycles Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) retained the No. 1 title in the global pure-play wafer foundry business in the third quarter of this year, seeing its market share growing to 64.9 percent to leave South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co, the No. 2 supplier, further behind, Taipei-based TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said in a report. TSMC posted US$23.53 billion in sales in the July-September period, up 13.0 percent from a quarter earlier, which boosted its market share to 64.9 percent, up from 62.3 percent in the second quarter, the report issued on Monday last week showed. TSMC benefited from the debut of flagship
TENSE TIMES: Formosa Plastics sees uncertainty surrounding the incoming Trump administration in the US, geopolitical tensions and China’s faltering economy Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), Taiwan’s largest industrial conglomerate, yesterday posted overall revenue of NT$118.61 billion (US$3.66 billion) for last month, marking a 7.2 percent rise from October, but a 2.5 percent fall from one year earlier. The group has mixed views about its business outlook for the current quarter and beyond, as uncertainty builds over the US power transition and geopolitical tensions. Formosa Plastics Corp (台灣塑膠), a vertically integrated supplier of plastic resins and petrochemicals, reported a monthly uptick of 15.3 percent in its revenue to NT$18.15 billion, as Typhoon Kong-rey postponed partial shipments slated for October and last month, it said. The
RSS