State-run Hua Nan Financial Holding Co (華南金控) aims to achieve stable and modest profit growth this year — following last year’s flat results — as it seeks to increase its loan books at offshore banking units and overseas branches, top executives said yesterday.
The bank-focused conglomerate is looking to grow profits this year by 4 percent to 5 percent from last year’s net income of NT$14.1 billion (US$458.31 million), driven mainly by a double-digit increase in its offshore and overseas lending business, Hua Nan Financial president Derek Chang (張雲鵬) said.
Hua Nan Commercial Bank (華南銀行), the group’s main source of income last year with a 97 percent earnings contribution, is seeking to increase its overseas and offshore lending operations by 10 to 15 percent this year, supported by an improving global economy and business environment, Chang said.
“While interest spreads are tapering off in overseas markets, they remain higher than in Taiwan,” which has the lowest borrowing costs in Asia because of excessive liquidity and competition, Chang said.
Offshore and overseas operations are expected to generate 40 percent of overall earnings this year, compared with last year’s 39.2 percent, Hua Nan Financial chairman Wu Tang-chieh (吳當傑) said, adding that the bank would also look for syndicated loan opportunities abroad.
Wu, a former deputy minister of finance, has decided to give top priority to legal compliance and risk control and therefore advocates a cautious and down-to-earth business approach.
“A penny saved is a penny earned,” Wu said, alluding to the US$180 million fine the New York State Department of Financial Services imposed on state-run Mega International Commercial Bank’s (兆豐銀行) New York branch in September last year for compliance failure years ago.
On the domestic front, Hua Nan Bank aims to increase the number of credit cards it has in circulation to 1.05 million this year, from last year’s 930,000 cards, which would allow it to become one of the nation’s top-10 card issuers, a rise from its present 11th place, bank vice president Li Tsung-hsien (李宗賢) said.
Hua Nan Securities Co (華南永昌證券), the group’s brokerage arm, is seeking to outperform its state-run peers in market share this year by courting affluent clients, company president Chen Chin-feng (陳錦峰) said.
The security house has benefited from ongoing liquidity-driven rallies on the local bourse, but it has to brace for uncertainty linked to upcoming US Federal Reserve interest rate hikes, Britain’s departure from the EU and growing tension between the US and its trade partners, Chen said.
In related news, South China Insurance Co (華南產物保險) president Kevin Tu (?志佶) said his company was the provider of compulsory automobile liability insurance for a tour bus that crashed near Taipei’s Muzha (木柵) on Monday night, leaving 33 people dead and 11 injured.
Each dead or seriously injured person could be awarded NT$2 million in compensation, Tu said, adding that the money would come from a reserve fund and would not affect the company’s bottom line.
PATENTS: MediaTek Inc said it would not comment on ongoing legal cases, but does not expect the legal action by Huawei to affect its business operations Smartphone integrated chips designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) on Friday said that a lawsuit filed by Chinese smartphone brand Huawei Technologies Co (華為) over alleged patent infringements would have little impact on its operations. In an announcement posted on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, MediaTek said that it would not comment on an ongoing legal case. However, the company said that Huawei’s legal action would have little impact on its operations. MediaTek’s statement came after China-based PRIP Research said on Thursday that Huawei filed a lawsuit with a Chinese district court claiming that MediaTek infringed on its patents. The infringement mentioned in the lawsuit likely involved
EXPECTATIONS: The firm, which is on track to outpace global foundry industry revenue growth, said it expects constrained advanced process capacity amid stronger AI demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday increased its projected revenue growth for this year to above 25 percent, as stronger-than-expected demand for premium smartphones and artificial intelligence (AI) devices are to drive greater utilization of cutting-edge 3-nanometer and 5-nanometer chips. In April TSMC estimated 21 to 24 percent annual growth. The firm’s revenue growth is on track to greatly outpace the global foundry industry, which is expected to rise about 10 percent this year. “Over the past three months, we have observed stronger AI and high-end smartphone demand from our customers, which is to boost the overall capacity utilization for our leading-edge
INVESTMENT: The company’s planned complex in Texas would be the first 12-inch silicon wafer fab built in the US in more than 20 years, a GlobalWafers official said GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said it secured up to US$400 million in direct funding from the US Department of Commerce under the CHIPS and Science Act for the construction of two new advanced fabs in the US. Its subsidiaries GlobalWafers America and MEMC LLC are to build a 12-inch silicon wafer fab in Sherman, Texas, and another one in Missouri to produce silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers used to make leading-edge chips. “With the support of the [US President Joe] Biden Administration, we are honored to be bringing to American shores the world’s most cutting-edge 12-inch semiconductor
Nikon Corp is fielding strong demand for its legacy chipmaking machines in China, which is mobilizing resources to build its own semiconductor supply chain. Inquiries for the Japanese precision maker’s lithography tools have surged in China, Nikon president Muneaki Tokunari said. The company is set to revamp a lithography machine geared for decades-old manufacturing processes. Its NSR-2205iL1, launching this summer, would serve the market for mature chip technology and Nikon expects to sell more than 10 units of the machine annually, said Tokunari, who is also chief operating officer and chief financial officer. New companies are sprouting up in China to make