CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控) would seek to maintain a 60 percent dividend payout ratio after it recorded profit of NT$72.03 billion (US$2.18 billion), or earnings per share of NT$3.64, last year, company president Rachael Kao (高麗雪) told an earnings conference in Taipei yesterday.
The board of directors at CTBC Financial would discuss the dividend policy next month, Kao said.
A proposed 60 percent payout ratio suggests a cash dividend of NT$2.18 per share.
Photo: Lee Chin-hui, Taipei Times
While uncertainty is escalating for financial markets this year, the landscape appears favorable for financial institutions, with the US Federal Reserve expected to cut interest rates in the next two quarters, which would benefit main subsidiary CTBC Bank’s (中信銀行) interest income and boost the asset value of its insurance arm, Taiwan Life Insurance Co (台灣人壽), Kao said.
Rate cuts would also help weaken the US dollar and spur loan demand, which are positive for interest income, she said, adding that the New Taiwan dollar is likely to remain volatile.
Separately, state-run Hua Nan Financial Holding Co (華南金控) said it would adopt a conservative approach to real-estate lending to support the efforts of Taiwan’s central bank’s to cool the housing market.
“Overall real-estate lending is expected to hold steady from last year, or change mildly,” Hua Nan Financial president Robert Li (李耀卿) told investors.
The conglomerate said that its flagship unit Hua Nan Commercial Bank (華南銀行) has more than NT$100 billion of pending construction loans and related mortgages.
The lender has halted new construction loan applications and sought to lower its real-estate lending from 40 percent to 39.4 percent of total loans, the conglomerate said.
Loans already approved would be disbursed in an orderly manner, with priority given to first-home buyers, owners of houses for self-occupancy and those who qualify for the government’s favorable lending terms, it said.
Hua Nan Bank is also eyeing deposit growth this year, particularly from small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as individual depositors, Hua Nan Financial said.
‘DECENT RESULTS’: The company said it is confident thanks to an improving world economy and uptakes in new wireless and AI technologies, despite US uncertainty Pegatron Corp (和碩) yesterday said it plans to build a new server manufacturing factory in the US this year to address US President Donald Trump’s new tariff policy. That would be the second server production base for Pegatron in addition to the existing facilities in Taoyuan, the iPhone assembler said. Servers are one of the new businesses Pegatron has explored in recent years to develop a more balanced product lineup. “We aim to provide our services from a location in the vicinity of our customers,” Pegatron president and chief executive officer Gary Cheng (鄭光治) told an online earnings conference yesterday. “We
LEAK SOURCE? There would be concern over the possibility of tech leaks if TSMC were to form a joint venture to operate Intel’s factories, an analyst said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday stayed mum after a report said that the chipmaker has pitched chip designers Nvidia Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc and Broadcom Inc about taking a stake in a joint venture to operate Intel Corp’s factories. Industry sources told the Central News Agency (CNA) that the possibility of TSMC proposing to operate Intel’s wafer fabs is low, as the Taiwanese chipmaker has always focused on its core business. There is also concern over possible technology leaks if TSMC were to form a joint venture to operate Intel’s factories, Concord Securities Co (康和證券) analyst Kerry Huang (黃志祺)
It was late morning and steam was rising from water tanks atop the colorful, but opaque-windowed, “soapland” sex parlors in a historic Tokyo red-light district. Walking through the narrow streets, camera in hand, was Beniko — a former sex worker who is trying to capture the spirit of the area once known as Yoshiwara through photography. “People often talk about this neighborhood having a ‘bad history,’” said Beniko, who goes by her nickname. “But the truth is that through the years people have lived here, made a life here, sometimes struggled to survive. I want to share that reality.” In its mid-17th to
‘MAKE OR BREAK’: Nvidia shares remain down more than 9 percent, but investors are hoping CEO Jensen Huang’s speech can stave off fears that the sales boom is peaking Shares in Nvidia Corp’s Taiwanese suppliers mostly closed higher yesterday on hopes that the US artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer would showcase next-generation technologies at its annual AI conference slated to open later in the day. The GPU Technology Conference (GTC) in California is to feature developers, engineers, researchers, inventors and information technology professionals, and would focus on AI, computer graphics, data science, machine learning and autonomous machines. The event comes at a make-or-break moment for the firm, as it heads into the next few quarters, with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s (黃仁勳) keynote speech today seen as having the ability to
RSS