The Shanghai Commercial & Savings Bank (上海商銀) appeared to have outperformed most of its financial peers, including 14 mega bank rivals, by announcing yesterday the highest bank cash dividend of NT$1.1 per share and a stock dividend of NT$0.4 per share.
“Amid the recent financial crisis, we did pretty well last year and decided to reward [investors] with dividends, which few financial rivals are paying this year,” bank chairman Yung Hung-ching (榮鴻慶) told a shareholders’ meeting yesterday.
The bank yesterday reported NT$5.46 billion (US$162 million) in after-tax income, or NT$2.32 per share — one of the best performances in the sector.
For the first quarter of this year, the bank reported a worse-than-expected after-tax earnings of NT$1.24 billion, or NT$0.53 per share, as a result of narrowed net interest margin and a declining wealth management business, the bank’s statement said.
Yung, who was re-elected as bank chairman, vowed yesterday to accelerate plans to branch into China by upgrading its liaison office in Suzhou into a branch once a cross-strait memorandum of understanding (MOU) is inked.
Meanwhile, Cosmos Bank Taiwan (萬泰銀行) yesterday decided to pay no dividends this year, its exchange filing said yesterday.
For the first time since its founding in 2001, Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) recently also said it would not pay a dividend for this year, followed by seven other financial holding companies including Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控).
Among the remaining rivals, Hua Nan Financial Holdings Co (華南金控), First Financial Holding Co (第一金控) and Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金控) paid combined dividends of NT$1, NT$0.75 and NT$0.5 respectively.
E.Sun Financial Holding Co (玉山金控) announced it would pay a stock dividend of NT$0.3 while Mega Financial Holding Co (兆豐金控) and Yuanta Financial Holding Co (元大金控) pay a cash dividend of NT$0.25 and NT$0.18 respectively.
The New Taiwan dollar is on the verge of overtaking the yuan as Asia’s best carry-trade target given its lower risk of interest-rate and currency volatility. A strategy of borrowing the New Taiwan dollar to invest in higher-yielding alternatives has generated the second-highest return over the past month among Asian currencies behind the yuan, based on the Sharpe ratio that measures risk-adjusted relative returns. The New Taiwan dollar may soon replace its Chinese peer as the region’s favored carry trade tool, analysts say, citing Beijing’s efforts to support the yuan that can create wild swings in borrowing costs. In contrast,
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