The nation’s major financial conglomerates with life insurance subsidiaries have reported higher net profits for the first quarter of this year on the back of investment returns, buoyed by the booming domestic stock market, companies’ data showed.
Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控), the nation’s second-largest financial holding firm by assets, yesterday reported net profit of NT$11.49 billion (US$403.7 million) for last month, up 42 percent year-on-year, while its net profit totaled NT$50 billion in the first quarter, up 118 percent year-on-year, it said in a statement.
Earnings per share were NT$4.89 in the first quarter, ranking the company first among the nation’s 15 financial holdings, it said.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kun, Taipei Times
The company attributed the momentum to its life insurance arm, Fubon Life Insurance Co (富邦人壽), which generated NT$39.11 billion in net profit in the first quarter, up 143 percent from a year earlier.
The insurer took advantage of the thriving local stock market and overseas stock markets to realize capital gains, while it also sold some foreign bonds to book gains and would put the cash back into investments when market rates rise, it said.
“We are upbeat for the domestic stock market, as firms in the electronics sector are solid and the traditional industry is recovering with growing revenue and profit,” Fubon Financial said, adding that it still has a lot of unrealized capital gains, with net value hitting a record NT$520 billion at the end of last month.
Fubon’s results came after Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) on Saturday reported record net profit of NT$18.09 billion for last month, which led to a record first-quarter profit of NT$57 billion, with earnings per share of NT$4.32, it said in a statement.
Its life insurance unit, Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽), contributed to the momentum, as net profit at the unit surged 224 percent annually to NT$49.33 billion for the first quarter in light of solid investment returns and good controls over its hedging costs, it said.
Cathay Life Insurance’s market share stood at 21.05 percent for the whole of last year, ranking first among all local life insurers, data compiled by the Financial Supervisory Commission showed.
It was followed by Fubon Life Insurance with a market share of 17.27 percent, Nan Shan Life Insurance Co (南山人壽) with 12.3 percent, China Life Insurance Co (中國人壽) with 8.14 percent and Taiwan Life Insurance Co (台灣人壽) with 6.6 percent, the data showed.
China Development Financial Holding Corp (中華開發金控) in February raised its stake in China Life to 55.95 percent by acquiring another 21.13 percent of China Life’s shares, which enabled the firm to recognize more of China Life’s earnings.
China Development Financial said its first-quarter net profit rose to NT$14.81 billion from NT$1.76 billion a year earlier, aided by the contribution from China Life.
CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控), the parent company of Taiwan Life, in a statement said its net profit rose 62 percent to NT$19.7 billion in the first quarter, due to high earnings growth at its life insurance arm.
FALLING BEHIND: Samsung shares have declined more than 20 percent this year, as the world’s largest chipmaker struggles in key markets and plays catch-up to rival SK Hynix Samsung Electronics Co is laying off workers in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand as part of a plan to reduce its global headcount by thousands of jobs, sources familiar with the situation said. The layoffs could affect about 10 percent of its workforces in those markets, although the numbers for each subsidiary might vary, said one of the sources, who asked not to be named because the matter is private. Job cuts are planned for other overseas subsidiaries and could reach 10 percent in certain markets, the source said. The South Korean company has about 147,000 in staff overseas, more than half
Taipei is today suspending its US$2.5 trillion stock market as Super Typhoon Krathon approaches Taiwan with strong winds and heavy rain. The nation is not conducting securities, currency or fixed-income trading, statements from its stock and currency exchanges said. Yesterday, schools and offices were closed in several cities and counties in southern and eastern Taiwan, including in the key industrial port city of Kaohsiung. Taiwan, which started canceling flights, ship sailings and some train services earlier this week, has wind and rain advisories in place for much of the island. It regularly experiences typhoons, and in July shut offices and schools as
TECH PARTNERSHIP: The deal with Arizona-based Amkor would provide TSMC with advanced packing and test capacities, a requirement to serve US customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is collaborating with Amkor Technology Inc to provide local advanced packaging and test capacities in Arizona to address customer requirements for geographical flexibility in chip manufacturing. As part of the agreement, TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, would contract turnkey advanced packaging and test services from Amkor at their planned facility in Peoria, Arizona, a joint statement released yesterday said. TSMC would leverage these services to support its customers, particularly those using TSMC’s advanced wafer fabrication facilities in Phoenix, Arizona, it said. The companies would jointly define the specific packaging technologies, such as TSMC’s Integrated
An Indian factory producing iPhone components resumed work yesterday after a fire that halted production — the third blaze to disrupt Apple Inc’s local supply chain since the start of last year. Local industrial behemoth Tata Group’s plant in Tamil Nadu, which was shut down by the unexplained fire on Saturday, is a key linchpin of Apple’s nascent supply chain in the country. A spokesperson for subsidiary Tata Electronics Pvt yesterday said that the company would restart work in “many areas of the facility today.” “We’ve been working diligently since Saturday to support our team and to identify the cause of the fire,”