Taipei, Nov. 2 (CNA) Fubon Financial Holdings was named the largest business group in terms of assets in Taiwan for the third year in a row in 2022, while Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) made its top 10 debut, according to an annual report released Thursday by credit information company CRIF.
According to the annual survey of Taiwan’s business groups by Taipei-based CRIF, Fubon Financial had NT$12.49 trillion (US$386.30 billion) in total assets last year, followed by Lin Yuan Group — which owns Cathay Financial Holding Co. — with nearly NT$12.17 trillion.
The gap between the total assets of the top two business conglomerates narrowed to NT$323.6 billion from NT$561.6 billion in 2021.
Financial conglomerates CTBC Group with NT$7.78 trillion in total assets and Taiwan Financial Holding Co. with nearly NT$6.63 trillion took third and fourth place, ahead of Ruentex Group, which owns insurance and property businesses, with NT$5.59 trillion.
Hon Hai Technology Group (Foxconn), the world’s largest contract electronics maker, came in sixth place with NT$5.26 trillion in total assets, ahead of Shin Kong Group, which has financial, textile and property development operations, with NT$5.24 trillion.
Meanwhile, TSMC, the world’s largest contract manufacturer of semiconductor chips, made the top 10 for the first time, ranking eighth, with total assets of nearly NT$5 trillion.
Taiwan Cooperative Financial Holding Co. came in ninth with nearly NT$4.48 trillion in total assets, and First Financial Holding Co., with total assets of NT$4.16 trillion, rounded out the top 10 and was up two spots from 12th in 2021.
CRIF noted that financial conglomerates account for six of the 10 spots.
In terms of net sales, Hon Hai reported NT$7.76 trillion last year, marking the 15th consecutive year as No. 1 technology conglomerate that finished at the top of the ranking, according to CRIF.
MiTAC-Synnex Group took the No. 2 spot with NT$3 trillion in net sales, following a merger between investment company, Synnex Corp., and IT distributor Tech Data in 2021, CRIF said.
The report said that despite several factors affecting businesses across the country in 2022 — including soaring global inflation, interest rate hikes in the United States and the Russia-Ukraine war — the total assets of and sales by Taiwan’s 100 biggest groups had still reached a record high of NT$139.04 trillion and nearly NT$37.73 billion, respectively.
(By Su Szu-yun and Evelyn Kao)
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