Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽) yesterday said it would recognize an investment loss of NT$8.8 billion (US$298.1 million) in Indonesia’s Bank Mayapada Internasional Tbk PT due to concerns about the lender’s operations amid a corporate scandal.
The company said it would revise its earnings result for June, from a net profit of NT$6.52 billion to a net loss of NT$520 million, its first monthly loss over the past 17 months.
After booking an investment loss of NT$5.2 billion in Bank Mayapada earlier this year, Cathay Life has so far recognized total investment losses of NT$14 billion in the lender, executive vice president Lin Chao-ting (林昭廷) told a news conference in Taipei.
Photo: Wu Chi-lun, Taipei Times
Cathy Life has invested NT$13.3 billion in Bank Mayapada since 2015 and recognized a net profit of NT$700 million over the past five years.
However, the recognized investment loss of NT$8.8 billion has completely written off its investment in the Indonesian lender, Lin said.
The company conducted due diligence of Bank Mayapada at the end of last month, discovering that the lender’s non-performing loan ratio stood at 6.94 percent, higher than the industry average of below 3 percent, although it still made a profit of 143.6 billion rupiah (US$9.73 million) for the first half of this year, Lin said.
Benny Tjokrosaputro, one of the lender’s debtors, was in January named a suspect in a bribery case involving PT Asuransi Jiwasraya, which had also triggered a run on the bank, he said.
Despite its losses of NT$14 billion in the lender, Cathay Life is still considering whether to raise its stake in the lender from 37.33 percent to 51 percent, Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) president Lee Chang-ken (李長庚) said.
“We are still talking with the Indonesian government and the bank’s controlling shareholder Tahir family about many issues, including how to handle the loans offered to Benny Tjokrosaputro,” Lee said.
“Based on our investment in Vietnam and Cambodia, we believe that if we have controlling power over the investment entity, the returns would be solid. So we are still evaluating if we should be a controlling shareholder in Bank Mayapada,” Lee said.
The insurer might reach a conclusion in three months, he added.
Cathay Life yesterday reported net profit of NT$12.2 billion for last month, the highest for a single month, due to advancing payment of cash dividends, while its cumulative profit for the first seven months rose 29 percent year-on-year to NT$31.5 billion, Lin said.
Merida Industry Co (美利達) has seen signs of recovery in the US and European markets this year, as customers are gradually depleting their inventories, the bicycle maker told shareholders yesterday. Given robust growth in new orders at its Taiwanese factory, coupled with its subsidiaries’ improving performance, Merida said it remains confident about the bicycle market’s prospects and expects steady growth in its core business this year. CAUTION ON CHINA However, the company must handle the Chinese market with great caution, as sales of road bikes there have declined significantly, affecting its revenue and profitability, Merida said in a statement, adding that it would
MARKET LEADERSHIP: Investors are flocking to Nvidia, drawn by the company’s long-term fundamntals, dominant position in the AI sector, and pricing and margin power Two years after Nvidia Corp made history by becoming the first chipmaker to achieve a US$1 trillion market capitalization, an even more remarkable milestone is within its grasp: becoming the first company to reach US$4 trillion. After the emergence of China’s DeepSeek (深度求索) sent the stock plunging earlier this year and stoked concerns that outlays on artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure were set to slow, Nvidia shares have rallied back to a record. The company’s biggest customers remain full steam ahead on spending, much of which is flowing to its computing systems. Microsoft Corp, Meta Platforms Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Alphabet Inc are
RISING: Strong exports, and life insurance companies’ efforts to manage currency risks indicates the NT dollar would eventually pass the 29 level, an expert said The New Taiwan dollar yesterday rallied to its strongest in three years amid inflows to the nation’s stock market and broad-based weakness in the US dollar. Exporter sales of the US currency and a repatriation of funds from local asset managers also played a role, said two traders, who asked not to be identified as they were not authorized to speak publicly. State-owned banks were seen buying the greenback yesterday, but only at a moderate scale, the traders said. The local currency gained 0.77 percent, outperforming almost all of its Asian peers, to close at NT$29.165 per US dollar in Taipei trading yesterday. The
The US overtaking China as Taiwan’s top export destination could boost industrial development and wage growth, given the US is a high-income economy, an economist said yesterday. However, Taiwan still needs to diversify its export markets due to the unpredictability of US President Donald Trump’s administration, said Chiou Jiunn-rong (邱俊榮), an economics professor at National Central University. Taiwan’s exports soared to a record US$51.74 billion last month, driven by strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) products and continued orders, with information and communication technology (ICT) and audio/video products leading all sectors. The US reclaimed its position as Taiwan’s top export market, accounting for
RSS