Bank of East Asia Ltd (東亞銀行), Hong Kong’s third-biggest lender by market value, said first-half profit rose 49 percent as a stock market recovery spurred trading revenue.
Net income in the six months ended June 30 rose to HK$1.17 billion (US$151 million), or HK$0.64 a share, from a restated HK$785 million, or HK$0.43 a share, a year earlier, the bank said in a statement yesterday. Profit beat the HK$1 billion median estimate of seven analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
Chairman David Li (李國寶), 70, vowed in March to rein in spending to help the bank recover from its first loss in four decades, caused by HK$1 billion in impairment charges and a 23 percent jump in expenses. Operating costs were little changed from the previous six months at HK$3.04 billion, the bank said.
Bank of East Asia “has controlled costs in a difficult economic environment,” said Nick Lord, an analyst at Macquarie Securities Ltd who has an “outperform” rating on Bank of East Asia, before the announcement.
The bank’s shares reversed earlier losses and gained 2.2 percent at 2:36pm after falling in morning trading. The stock has risen 77 percent this year, the third-best performance among 11 Hong Kong-traded financial companies tracked by the Hang Seng Finance Index, which rose 42 percent over the same period.
The bank posted a HK$746 million loss in the second half of last year after bad-loan charges more than doubled. It booked HK$3.5 billion of losses last year after selling all its holdings of collateralized debt obligations (CDOs). CDOs, which repackage bonds, loans and credit-default swaps and use the income to pay investors, plunged as lending froze after the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.
Year-earlier figures were restated because of “unauthorized manipulation” of the valuation of equity derivatives held by the bank, the statement said.
Bank of East Asia yesterday predicted a “continued recovery” in the global economy in the second half as the US starts to emerge from a housing-led slump.
The bank said impairment losses rose to HK$493 million from HK$315 million a year earlier. It made a gain of HK$874 million from trading, compared with a loss of HK$213 million. Net interest income fell to HK$3.23 billion in the first half from HK$3.48 billion a year earlier, while net fee and commission income dropped to HK$1.01 billion from HK$1.19 billion.
Operating profit from the bank’s mainland Chinese operation fell to HK$731 million from HK$842 million as non-interest income declined 35 percent to HK$184 million.
The bank and rivals such as HSBC Holdings Plc have been expanding in China in the past two years as the nation’s booming economy drove demand for loans and investment products.
Bank of East Asia, the first foreign lender to issue debit cards in China, last month raised 4 billion yuan (US$586 million) in Hong Kong selling bonds denominated in the currency for the first time. It also aims to sell shares in Shanghai by the second half of next year, deputy chief executive officer Brian Li (李民斌) said this month.
HANDOVER POLICY: Approving the probe means that the new US administration of Donald Trump is likely to have the option to impose trade restrictions on China US President Joe Biden’s administration is set to initiate a trade investigation into Chinese semiconductors in the coming days as part of a push to reduce reliance on a technology that US officials believe poses national security risks. The probe could result in tariffs or other measures to restrict imports on older-model semiconductors and the products containing them, including medical devices, vehicles, smartphones and weaponry, people familiar with the matter said. The investigation examining so-called foundational chips could take months to conclude, meaning that any reaction to the findings would be left to the discretion of US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming team. Biden
In a patch of South America rich in lithium, used to make batteries for electric cars and other tech, Bolivia is lagging its neighbors in the race to mine the key metal. An area called the “lithium triangle” which spills over the borders of Bolivia, Chile and Argentina is home to 60 percent of the world’s lithium reserves, according to the US Geological Survey. Bolivia claims to have Earth’s largest deposit of the metal, used to make rechargeable batteries for smartphones, laptops and other devices besides e-vehicles. However, Bolivia has undertaken only four pilot projects and is running just one
INVESTMENT: Jun Seki, chief strategy officer for Hon Hai’s EV arm, and his team are currently in talks in France with Renault, Nissan’s 36 percent shareholder Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the iPhone maker known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) internationally, is in talks with Nissan Motor Co’s biggest shareholder Renault SA about its willingness to sell its shares in the Japanese automaker, the Central News Agency (CNA) said, citing people it did not identify. Nissan and fellow Japanese automaker, Honda Motor Co, are exploring a merger that would create a rival to Toyota Motor Corp in Japan and better position the combined company to face competitive challenges around the world, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. However, one potential spanner in the works is
HON HAI LURKS: The ‘Nikkei’ reported that Foxconn’s interest in Nissan accelerated the Honda-merger effort out of fears it might be taken over by the Taiwanese firm Nissan Motor Co has become the latest buyout target in Japan as it explores a merger with Honda Motor Co and faces an overture from Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) internationally. Shares in Nissan yesterday jumped 24 percent, the most on record, to hit the daily limit, after the two Japanese automakers acknowledged that talks are ongoing to better position themselves for competitive challenges during a time of upheaval in the global auto industry. Foxconn — a Taipei-based manufacturer of iPhones, which has been investing heavily in factories to build electric vehicles — has also
RSS