The domestic banking sector’s bad-loan ratio dropped to a new low of 0.46 percent at the end of last month, from 0.48 percent one month earlier, the Financial Supervisory Commission said in a statement yesterday.
Of the 37 domestic lenders, 36 had a non-performing loan ratio below the 2 percent mark, the commission said in the statement.
The bad-loan ratio for Cosmos Bank Taiwan (萬泰銀行) remained relatively high at 5.65 percent. The ratio was attributed to a bad loan of NT$1.6 billion (US$55.11 million) to the cash-strapped Prince Motor Group (太子汽車) as part of its secured lending valued at NT$5.6 billion.
Prince Motor is the local sales agent of Japan’s Suzuki Motor Corp. The company’s chairman, Hsu Sheng-fa (許勝發), is also the founder and former chairman of Cosmos Bank, but relinquished control after selling a combined 80 percent stake in 2007.
As of July 31, the domestic banking sector’s bad loans totaled NT$96.9 billion, down NT$2.6 billion from a month earlier. Outstanding loans amounted to NT$20.87 trillion last month, up NT$164.7 billion from a month earlier, the commission’s data showed.
In related news, Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) yesterday restated its first-half net income as NT$15.16 billion, compared with NT$17.42 billion it announced on Aug. 11.
The company said in an e-mailed statement that the discrepancy of NT$2.26 billion was because of lower retained earnings at its life insurance subsidiary, Fubon Life Insurance Co (富邦人壽), as demanded by the commission.
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STILL HOPEFUL: Delayed payment of NT$5.35 billion from an Indian server client sent its earnings plunging last year, but the firm expects a gradual pickup ahead Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), the world’s No. 5 PC vendor, yesterday reported an 87 percent slump in net profit for last year, dragged by a massive overdue payment from an Indian cloud service provider. The Indian customer has delayed payment totaling NT$5.35 billion (US$162.7 million), Asustek chief financial officer Nick Wu (吳長榮) told an online earnings conference. Asustek shipped servers to India between April and June last year. The customer told Asustek that it is launching multiple fundraising projects and expected to repay the debt in the short term, Wu said. The Indian customer accounted for less than 10 percent to Asustek’s
Gasoline and diesel prices this week are to decrease NT$0.5 and NT$1 per liter respectively as international crude prices continued to fall last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to decrease to NT$29.2, NT$30.7 and NT$32.7 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, while premium diesel is to cost NT$27.9 per liter at CPC stations and NT$27.7 at Formosa pumps, the companies said in separate statements. Global crude oil prices dropped last week after the eight OPEC+ members said they would
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