To strengthen its offerings to companies that do business in China, UCBH Holdings Inc. has opened representative offices in Shenzhen and in Taipei, Taiwan.
"By opening these new offices, we have demonstrated our commitment to further developing our trade finance capabilities and international banking business," Thomas S. Wu, UCBH's chairman, president and chief executive officer, said in a press release Monday. "We believe greater China represents a sizeable growth opportunity for us."
The San Francisco parent company of United Commercial Bank already operates a full-service branch in Hong Kong.
In the same press release in which it announced the openings, the $6.3 billion-asset UCBH said its loan pipeline had grown more than 60% since the end of last year, to $2.2 billion. UCBH also reaffirmed its full-year 2005 earnings estimate of $2.10 a share.
UCBH reported earnings of $86.3 million, or $1.81 a share, for last year. It is scheduled to release its first-quarter results April 21.
