Fubon first quarter profit up 71% to US$354.9mn

The lender posted a return on asset of 1.18% and return on equity of 18.75%.

Fubon Financial Holding posted a net profit of NT$10.228 billion (US$354.9 million) for the first quarter, its historic high, the company said on Wednesday at its investors' conference.

The figure was a 71 percent increase from the first quarter of 2010 and translated into earnings per share of NT$1.2 (US$0.04), the highest among Taiwan's financial holding firms.

For the first three months, Fubon had return on asset of 1.18 percent and return on equity of 18.75 percent.

The company's total asset amounted to NT$3.4918 trillion (US$121.16 billion) in Q1, making it Taiwan's second largest publicly listed financial holding firm by asset. The figure was a rise of 9.9 percent from the same period last year and higher than the 6.8 percent average in the market.

The firm's deposit-to-lending ratio was 80.1 percent in the first quarter, the highest since June of last year. The deposit-lending rate difference was 1.32 percent, the highest since Q1 of 2009. Net interest margin was 0.96 percent, pretty much the same as Q1 last year.

For the first quarter, subsidiary Taipei Fubon Bank had NT$1.973 billion (US$68.46 million) in income from processing fees, of which NT$1.408 billion (US$48.85 million) or 71 percent was from fees paid by wealth management clients. Nonperforming ratio was 0.22 percent during Q1, and coverage ratio was 268.58 percent.

View the full story in China Post.