Swiss banking giant UBS said yesterday it will post a full-year loss of 4.4 billion Swiss francs (US$3.5 billion) this year because of its exposure to the US subprime crisis.
In the fourth quarter alone, UBS posted a net loss of SF12.5 billion, the bank said in a statement.
SUBPRIME DAMAGE
Subprime losses amount to approximately US$12 billion, with the loss of a further US$2.0 billion attributable to other aspects of the US housing market, the bank said.
The bank had already said a full-year loss was likely after dismal third-quarter results.
It will announce its results for last year in full on Feb. 14.
Meanwhile, French bank BNP Paribas, tipped as a potential suitor for scandal-hit Societe Generale, declared yesterday a record 7.8 billion euros (US$11.5 billion) in estimated net profits for last year.
In a statement, the bank -- the country's largest in terms of market capitalization -- said that it achieved its 7 percent year-on-year increase in spite of the ongoing subprime lending crisis in the US.
Fourth-quarter profits were put at around 1 billion euros, down 42 percent from the same period a year earlier amidst the turmoil in global credit markets.
JAPAN
In Japan, Mizuho Financial Group Inc's losses from the US subprime loan crisis could soar to ¥300 billion (US$2.81 billion) in the current financial year, reports said yesterday.
The Nikkei Shimbun said Mizuho Financial Group as a whole could suffer losses of up to ¥300 billion on securities tied to US subprime mortgage loans.
There was no immediate comment from the bank, which for the first half of the financial year had booked losses of almost ¥70 billion related to the subprime loan crisis.
Last month, Mizuho Securities said it would issue ¥150 billion worth of new shares to its parent Mizuho Corporate Bank to bolster its capital, but the reports said it might now require a further cash injection.
Mizuho Securities was forced to put off a merger with Shinko Securities Co after falling into the red because of the subprime crisis.
Other Japanese banks have also suffered subprime-related losses, although on a smaller scale than many of their overseas peers.
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
‘SOMETHING SPECIAL’: Donald Trump vowed to reward his supporters, while President William Lai said he was confident the Taiwan-US partnership would continue Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the US early yesterday morning, an extraordinary comeback for a former president who was convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts. With a win in Wisconsin, Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency. As of press time last night, The Associated Press had Trump on 277 electoral college votes to 224 for US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s nominee, with Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Michigan and Nevada yet to finalize results. He had 71,289,216 votes nationwide, or 51 percent, while Harris had 66,360,324 (47.5 percent). “We’ve been through so
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