The combined pretax profits of the nation’s listed companies fell 4.87 percent year-on-year to NT$5.09 trillion (US$166.86 billion) last year, even though combined revenue rose 5.01 percent to a record NT$42.9 trillion, data released by the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) on Tuesday showed.
That is because financial companies and optoelectronics firms reported greater losses than usual last year, the FSC said.
The performance of listed firms last year was drastically different from the previous two years. Their combined pretax profits rose 21 percent in 2020 and 71 percent in 2021.
Photo: Maurice Tsai, Bloomberg
Last year’s retreat marked the second time that listed firms’ pretax profits have contracted on an annual basis since 2019, when profits decreased 9.84 percent to NT$2.56 trillion, the FSC said.
Last year, listed financial firms saw their pretax profits plunge 43 percent to NT$324.1 billion, as life insurers incurred investment losses from rate hikes and non-life insurers had to make sizeable payouts for COVID-19 and vaccine insurance policies, the FSC said.
Optoelectronics firms’ pretax profits fell 21.95 percent annually to NT$274.7 billion last year because of weaker demand, while suppliers of semiconductors and electronic components, and shipping firms last year posted strong profits due to strong demand and higher gross margins, the FSC said.
Overall, companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange saw pretax profits drop 5 percent to NT$4.6 trillion last year, while those on the Taipei Exchange posted a gain of 6.76 percent to N$3.33 trillion, the data showed.
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