Taishin FHC sustains its solid core business performances, delivering synergy with TS Life and capturing business opportunities for the second half of the year.
(2022/08/23) Taishin Financial Holding Co., Ltd. (TFHC) today held its 2Q22 analyst meeting online. TFHC’s President Welch Lin, CFO Carol Lai, and Chief Investment Officer Eric Chien, alongside Taishin Bank’s President Oliver Shang, Wholesale Banking Group CEO Sharon Lin, and Taishin Life’s CEO Louis Heng jointly presented at the live webcast to address the operating results of 2Q22. Welch Lin highlighted that 1H22’s net income after tax declined mainly due to the impacts from financial market volatility. Nonetheless, TFHC’s subsidiaries, including Taishin Bank (TSIB), Taishin Life (TS Life), and Taishin Securities (TSS), have all delivered solid performances in 2Q22.
TFHC’s 1H22 net income after tax was NT$4.477bn, the EPS was NT$0.32, the ROE was 4.77%, and the book value per common share was NT$12.74. Welch Lin explained that in 2Q22 the global macro backdrop, exacerbated by worldwide inflation, meant that advanced economies’ accelerated monetary tightening and escalating geopolitical tensions combined to exacerbate market volatility and impact TFHC’s 1H22 earnings. On the other hand, the YoY comparison was also affected by one-time items that resulted from the completion of the acquisition of Prudential Life Insurance Company of Taiwan Inc. (POT) and the initiation of the divestment of Taishin’s Chang Hwa Bank (CHB) stakes, and when excluding any items related to the POT acquisition and the CHB reclassification, the decline in net profits is reduced to 30% YoY, a figure in line with the performances of TFHC’s main peers. The Group maintained a strong capital position, with FHC CAR at 119.2% and bank BIS at 14.6%. TSIB's asset quality remained benign, with NPL% at 0.14% and coverage at 970.2%.
Subsidiary TSIB’s deposit grew by 7.3% YoY, and its corporate loan maintained stable growth, while its total loan increased by 5.4% YoY, with FCY and NTD loan up by 10% and 4.3%, respectively. The credit card business saw a 7.6% YoY growth in card spending and a 6.2% YoY growth in gross fee income. With over 160,000 merchants served and over 4.11 million active cards, TSIB remains a leader of the industry.
In 1H22, TS Life’s net income after tax was NT$1.477bn, and first year premium (FYP) reached NT$10.057bn (driven by robust sales of new product offerings distributed through strong bancassurance channels). TSS’ 1H22 net income after tax was NT$228mn, with its brokerage fee income slipping when compared with the same period last year, a decline mainly attributable to fluctuations in global capital markets and the decline in trading volume of the Taiwan Stock Market.
Regarding the highly-watched disputes over the managerial control of CHB, Welch Lin stated that a satisfactory outcome had been achieved after coordination by the Supreme Court judges with the mediators; thus, on August 10th TFHC withdrew the in-process lawsuits against the Ministry of Finance and completed an after-hour block trade to divest 1,048.8mn shares of CHB, reducing its holdings to 10.41% of CHB o/s. Welch Lin stressed that as part of a continued effort to fulfill TFHC’s commitments made to the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) to divest its CHB investment within the 6 year timeframe, TFHC has been divesting through the issuance of exchangeable bonds, exchangeable preferred shares, and block trades.
As Taishin celebrates its 30th anniversary with the theme of “Commitment and Sustainability,” TFHC continues to advance the cause of climate risk management. TFHC has received an official validation from the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) on July 21st for its science-based targets, being the 3rd among its financial peers in Taiwan and the 5th in Asia to receive such an approval. Moving forward, TFHC will uphold global ESG development trends to enhance sustainable developments and to advance its efforts and disclosures regarding sustainable finance and climate action by following the FSC’s Green Finance Action Plan 2.0 and TWSE’s Corporate Governance Best Practice Principles in response to the Corporate Governance 3.0-Sustainable Development Roadmap released by the FSC. Taishin also encourages the public to engage in its “From Zero to Hero” initiatives by making sustainable everyday decisions to mitigate the effects of climate change.