Tsai Ming-hsing: Fubon Securities' Profit Nears Bank Level, Financial Holding Stock Prices Are Reasonable or Even Low

(Central News Agency reporter Zeng Yunting, Taipei, 12th) Fubon Financial Chairman Tsai Ming-hsing said today that, benefiting from the active trading in the Taiwan stock market, Fubon Securities' monthly recurring profit has exceeded NT$2 billion, excluding proprietary trading gains and losses, a scale close to "bank-level" profitability. He also mentioned that Fubon Financial's current P/E ratio is less than 10 times, significantly lower than the 30 to 100 times level of technology stocks, and its stock price is relatively low. Compared with the P/E ratio of international financial peers, which is about 10 to 12 times, "a P/E ratio of 12 times should be considered very reasonable, or even low."

Fubon Financial held its annual shareholders' meeting today, and Tsai spoke to the media afterward. This year, Fubon Financial approved a cash dividend of NT$4.25 per share, matching its historical high. Regarding future dividend policies, Tsai said the company aims to base dividends on 40% to 50% of adjusted earnings, preferring cash dividends to align with shareholder preferences, and expects that next year's dividend could be better than this year's due to profit growth.

Discussing the future of the Taiwan stock market, he pointed out that Taiwan's economic growth performance this year is better than South Korea's. Although both Taiwan and South Korea benefit from the AI wave, Taiwan's benefits are more comprehensive. From servers and chips to components, the majority of the overall AI supply chain is concentrated in Taiwan, and there is even a widespread shortage, further driving up prices and corporate profit growth.

Tsai further pointed out that the AI boom has significantly increased demand for CPUs. The past ratio of GPU to CPU was about 4:1, but it is now close to 1:1, doubling CPU demand and driving the expansion of the entire supply chain. He also mentioned that the production capacity of foundries like TSMC remains tight, indicating that if AI infrastructure continues to expand, Taiwanese companies and the stock market will continue to benefit.

When asked by the media about the reasonable P/E ratio range for Taiwan's financial holding industry, Tsai said that based on Fubon Financial's adjusted earnings per share of NT$11.36 for the first five months of this year, its current P/E ratio is less than 10 times, significantly lower than the 30 to 100 times level of technology stocks. Compared with international peers, the reasonable P/E ratio for life insurance and financial holding companies is about 10 to 12 times, and for the banking industry, it can even reach 15 to 20 times. "A P/E ratio of 12 times should be considered very reasonable, or even low."

Regarding advice for investors continuing to enter the stock market, Tsai cautioned against "borrowing a lot of money to buy stocks," because while the risk of a major event might be small, if the market undergoes a sharp correction, it could cause significant losses. For those who lack time to research individual stocks, he suggested diversifying investments through ETFs to reduce risk with professional management. (Editor: Pan Yijing) 1150612