Chinatrust expects profit to soar to $344.5mln

Chinatrust might sign an MOU with the Bank of China for cooperation in financial services.

Chinatrust Financial Holding Co. scored after-tax profits of NT$11.023 billion (US$344.47 million) in the first nine months of this year with earnings per share (EPS) ballooning to NT$1.03 (US$0.032).

In the third quarter Chinatrust`s consumer loans rose a quarterly 4.9% and surged an annual 13.6%, with service charge revenues for wealth management rising 8.8% from the previous quarter, and such revenues in the first three quarters growing an annual 30.4%.

During the quarter the company`s net profits grew 3.5% from the corresponding figure of last year, with the percentage expanding to 10.5% in the first three quarters.

Y. K. Wu, president of the company, disclosed that Chinatrust might sign by the end of the year a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Bank of China (BOC), a state-run bank in China, for cooperation in financial services offered to clients on both sides of Taiwan Strait.

Besides, Chinatrust Commercial Bank applied early last month with the China Banking Regulatory Commission to upgrade its representative office in Shanghai to branch, hoping for approval by the end of this year to start up the branch in the first quarter of next year.

View the full story in CENS.