Dah Sing: ‘Balanced view’ on growth

The MSAR economy looks ‘set to continue on a recovering path,’ notes banking group Dah Sing in its annual results, basing its ‘balanced view’ on ‘some opportunities for growth’ throughout the year, according to its filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
The 2.5 per cent dip in profits seen during the year, amounting to HK$2.14 billion (US$266.5 million), was contributed to by the ‘lower retail securities trading volume’ of the group’s Banco Comercial de Macau (BCM) operations, given a less optimistic stock market outlook ‘compared with the more buoyant market sentiment’ in 2015.
In addition, ‘lower lending-related fees including syndicated loan fees’ affected BCM’s performance during the year in which it operated 14 branches throughout the MSAR.
Net profit for BCM, however, was still up 1 per cent year-on-year and ‘deposit growth was broadly diversified, with the growth in low cost current and savings deposits and tight control on fixed deposit cost contributing to the improvement in the overall cost of funds,’ notes the group. Growth in its loan portfolio was driven by mortgage loans, commercial lending, working capital finance and syndicated loans.
Dah Sing Chairman David Shou-Yeh Wong is also the Chairman of BCM, as well as of Macau Insurance Company Limited (MIC) and Macau Life Insurance Company Limited (MLIC). Recently, the Monetary Authority of Macau published a note stating it was ‘highly concerned’ about reports of alleged bid rigging by insurance companies in the MSAR.
The announcement most likely refers to reports that MIC’s CEO had allegedly during an internal meeting requested staff to have “more under-the-table co-operation” with other insurance companies as well as “negotiations with other companies for reinsurance,” as noted by Apple Daily.