Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控), which owns the nation’s third-largest credit card issuer, Taishin International Bank (台新銀行), is aiming to expand through mergers and acquisitions (M&As), although there is no timetable for expansion, senior executives said on Saturday.
The conglomerate will first seek to increase the size of the banking subsidiary to make it one of the leading lenders in the local market, chief financial officer Welch Lin (林維俊) told a media gathering.
The bank-centric group posted NT$9.44 billion (US$320.42 million) in net income last year, which translated into earnings of NT$1.27 per share and was 20 percent higher than the previous year, company data showed.
Last year’s results, the best in seven years, were underpinned by earnings at Taishin Bank that more than offset losses incurred by the securities brokerage unit, company data showed.
“The expansion strategy will target banks, insurance companies and other financial services to strengthen our earnings and product lines,” Lin said.
Market share gains for Taishin Bank are based on the expansion plans, and these plans accounted for the group’s 2005 acquisition of a 22.5 percent stake in Chang Hwa Commercial Bank (彰化銀行), Lin said.
The deal gave Taishin Financial majority control of Chang Hwa’s board, but political challenges have prevented further integration.
Taishin Financial is still interested in acquiring a life insurance company after losing the bid for MetLife Inc’s Taiwanese unit to Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金控) in March last year, Lin said.
Having a life insurance subsidiary would strengthen the group’s product lines and bring synergistic benefits, Lin said.
Taishin Financial also aims to deepen its presence in other financial service businesses that will help boost earnings, Lin said.
“This explains why in December 2010 we acquired IBT Asset Management Co (台灣工銀投信),” a subsidiary of the Industrial Business Bank (台灣工銀), for NT$437.5 million, he said.
Taishin Securities Investment Trust Co (台新投信) saw its assets under management advance 50 percent to NT$90 billion in January from NT$60 billion upon the integration 14 months ago, Taishin Investment Trust chairman Johnson Chen (陳瓊讚) said.
The figures meant a 10 percent increase from one month earlier and a 50 percent gain from the year-ago level, company data indicated.
The performance pushed Taishin Securities Trust’s ranking in the local market to ninth place from 24th, Chen said, adding that it was approaching the NT$100 billion goal set to be achieved next year.
The fund manager will continue to differentiate itself from its peers by specializing in emerging markets, Chen said.
Taishin Financial president Joseph Jao (饒世湛) said the group planned to open its second capital leasing company in Tianjin, China, in July, as long as Chinese regulators approve the application.
Jao said he hoped that Taiwan and China would ease access rules faster to allow so that service providers could expand more quickly.
Taishin Financial is scheduled to hold an investor conference tomorrow.
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