CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控) would seek to maintain a 60 percent dividend payout ratio after it recorded profit of NT$72.03 billion (US$2.18 billion), or earnings per share of NT$3.64, last year, company president Rachael Kao (高麗雪) told an earnings conference in Taipei yesterday.
The board of directors at CTBC Financial would discuss the dividend policy next month, Kao said.
A proposed 60 percent payout ratio suggests a cash dividend of NT$2.18 per share.
Photo: Lee Chin-hui, Taipei Times
While uncertainty is escalating for financial markets this year, the landscape appears favorable for financial institutions, with the US Federal Reserve expected to cut interest rates in the next two quarters, which would benefit main subsidiary CTBC Bank’s (中信銀行) interest income and boost the asset value of its insurance arm, Taiwan Life Insurance Co (台灣人壽), Kao said.
Rate cuts would also help weaken the US dollar and spur loan demand, which are positive for interest income, she said, adding that the New Taiwan dollar is likely to remain volatile.
Separately, state-run Hua Nan Financial Holding Co (華南金控) said it would adopt a conservative approach to real-estate lending to support the efforts of Taiwan’s central bank’s to cool the housing market.
“Overall real-estate lending is expected to hold steady from last year, or change mildly,” Hua Nan Financial president Robert Li (李耀卿) told investors.
The conglomerate said that its flagship unit Hua Nan Commercial Bank (華南銀行) has more than NT$100 billion of pending construction loans and related mortgages.
The lender has halted new construction loan applications and sought to lower its real-estate lending from 40 percent to 39.4 percent of total loans, the conglomerate said.
Loans already approved would be disbursed in an orderly manner, with priority given to first-home buyers, owners of houses for self-occupancy and those who qualify for the government’s favorable lending terms, it said.
Hua Nan Bank is also eyeing deposit growth this year, particularly from small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as individual depositors, Hua Nan Financial said.
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