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Taiwan's Shin Kong sees $200 mln in Q3 one-time gains

Reuters - Wednesday, August 20

TAIPEI, Aug 19 - Shin Kong Financial <2888.TW>, parent of Taiwan's No. 2 life insurer, expects to book one-time gains of T$6.24 billion to help cover huge losses resulting from the U.S. subprime crisis and a plunge in Taiwan stocks, an executive said on Tuesday.

Shin Kong, Taiwan's No. 8 financial holding firm, will book in the third quarter a T$3.24 billion gain from selling two pieces of prime land in Taipei and another T$3 billion from cash dividends on its stock investments, President Victor Hsu told an investor conference.

The gains would help the bottom line at Shin Kong, whose stock was hovering at multi-year lows, for the rest of the year.

Shin Kong and bigger local rivals were hit hard this year on increased write-downs of their subprime mortgage investments and forex losses from a volatile Taiwan currency against the U.S. dollar, as well as losses from tumbling Taiwan stocks.

Shin Kong reported a net loss of T$11.88 billion from January to July, while industry leader Cathay Financial <2882.TW> had posted a 65 percent plunge in its second-quarter net profit. [ID:nTP89233]

Shin Kong had T$1.13 trillion in its investment portfolio as of June, up slightly from T$1.1 trillion at end of 2007.

Shares of the company closed up 2 percent, outperforming a 0.32 percent fall in the broader market <.TWII>.

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