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PRESS RELEASE: Fitch Affirms Taiwan Concord Securities Corp.

 
Dow Jones Newswires
     

    Fitch Ratings-Taipei/Hong Kong-11 March 2010: Fitch Ratings has today affirmed all ratings of Taiwan's Concord Securities Corporation (CSC). The Outlook on its Long-term foreign currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) and National Long-term Rating remains Stable. A full list of rating actions is included at the end of this release.

    CSC's ratings reflect its adequate liquidity and capitalisation, as well as its modest profitability due to the limited scale of its essential brokerage businesses.

    To balance its traditional focus on equity brokerage, CSC has increased contributions from its fee-generating businesses such as wealth management and futures brokerage. In Fitch's view, if CSC's planned acquisitions of small local securities firms in 2010 are properly executed, they will complement its existing strategy and increase CSC's scale, facilitating sales of its expanded wealth management products to retail customers. To support its growth, CSC plans to raise TWD2bn in new equity and/or TWD1bn in convertible bonds in 2010.

    CSC's return on equity improved to 5.1% (un-audited) in 2009 from -4.7% in 2008, due to increased brokerage commissions and gains in proprietary trading amid a broad recovery in the local equity market. CSC's market risk exposures remain moderate, although its increased proprietary equity positions may increase earnings volatility. CSC has good asset quality, and is adequately capitalised with equity/asset and capital adequacy ratios at 45% and 367% respectively at end-2009 (down from 47% and 671% at end-2008 due to increases in margin loans and stock holdings). Additionally, CSC maintains an adequate liquidity position, with a comfortable current ratio at 146% and illiquid assets are sufficiently covered by long-term funding at end-2009.

    CSC is one of the mid-sized fully licensed securities firms in Taiwan, taking up 1.5% of the local stock brokerage market share. The Cheng family remains the major shareholder, controlling 28% of CSC.

    CSC's ratings have been affirmed as follows:

    - Long-term foreign currency IDR at 'BB+'; Outlook Stable- Short-term foreign currency IDR at 'B'; - National Long-term rating at 'A-(twn)'; Outlook Stable- National Short-term rating at 'F2(twn)';- Individual rating at 'C/D'; - Support rating at '5'; and- Support rating floor at 'NF'.

    Applicable criteria available on Fitch's website at www.fitchratings.com: "Global Financial Institutions Rating Criteria", dated 29 December 2009 and "Rating Criteria for Securities Firms", dated 30 December 2009.

    Contacts: Yuchi Fan, Cherry Huang, Jonathan Lee, Taipei, +886 2 8175 7600.

    Note to editors: Fitch's National ratings provide a relative measure of creditworthiness for rated entities in countries with relatively low international sovereign ratings and where there is demand for such ratings. The best risk within a country is rated 'AAA' and other credits are rated only relative to this risk. National ratings are designed for use mainly by local investors in local markets and are signified by the addition of an identifier for the country concerned, such as 'AAA(twn)' for National ratings in Taiwan. Specific letter grades are not therefore internationally comparable.

    Media Relations: Karen Cho, Hong Kong, Tel: +852 2263 9935, Email: karen.cho@fitchratings.com.

    Additional information is available at www.fitchratings.com.

    ALL FITCH CREDIT RATINGS ARE SUBJECT TO CERTAIN LIMITATIONS AND DISCLAIMERS. PLEASE READ THESE LIMITATIONS AND DISCLAIMERS BY FOLLOWING THIS LINK: HTTP://FITCHRATINGS.COM/UNDERSTANDINGCREDITRATINGS. IN ADDITION, RATING DEFINITIONS AND THE TERMS OF USE OF SUCH RATINGS ARE AVAILABLE ON THE AGENCY'S PUBLIC WEBSITE 'WWW.FITCHRATINGS.COM'. PUBLISHED RATINGS, CRITERIA AND METHODOLOGIES ARE AVAILABLE FROM THIS SITE AT ALL TIMES. FITCH'S CODE OF CONDUCT, CONFIDENTIALITY, CONFLICTS OF INTEREST, AFFILIATE FIREWALL, COMPLIANCE AND OTHER RELEVANT POLICIES AND PROCEDURES ARE ALSO AVAILABLE FROM THE 'CODE OF CONDUCT' SECTION OF THIS SITE.

    Copyright © 2009 Dow Jones Newswires

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