Gas pump prices to rise
Chinese Petroleum Corp (中油) yesterday said it will raise domestic wholesale gasoline and diesel prices by an average 3.02 percent because of an increase in international crude oil prices. Chinese Petroleum said it will raise the price for unleaded gasoline products by NT$0.4 per liter and NT$0.6 per liter for diesel products. The price of crude oil has risen 45 percent this year, partly on concern that the US may declare war on Iraq. Both Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) and Esso Petroleum Taiwan (台灣埃索) announced yesterday that as of midnight Sept. 27, they will raise pump prices for unleaded gasoline and auto diesel by NT$0.4 per liter and NT$0.6 per liter respectively.
Fubon sells bank stake
Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) yesterday sold its stake in United World Chinese Commercial Bank (世華銀行) at a price of NT$28 per share. Fubon sold 559.8 million shares it owned in United World -- or 14.8 percent of the the latter's shares, liquidating some NT$15.67 billion, the company said in a statement. Fubon, which failed to sell its stake in the bank on Wednesday, is expected to earn NT$3.1 billion in profits through the share sales, it said. United World decided to merge with Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) earlier last month to form the nation's largest financial service company.
BES stages protests at MOE
Sheen Ching-jing (沈慶京), chairman of BES Engineering Corp (中華工程) -- a major builder of industrial parks for the government -- yesterday joined some 400 company shareholders and staged a protest in front of the Ministry of Econo-mic Affairs. Sheen and protesters called on the government to reimburse NT$19 billion that BES spent on construction of several industrial parks on behalf of the government beginning in 1978. Sheen read off a list of names of officials that should shoulder the responsibility, including Premier Yu Shyi-kun, Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics Director General Lin Chuan (林全) and Minister of Economic Affairs Li Yi-fu (林義夫). After greeting the protesters, ministry officials reiterated denials of responsibility for the corpora-tion's debts. The Industrial Development Bureau's deputy director-general Kuo Nein-hsiung (郭年雄) yesterday said that the government had followed the contract and refused to reimburse any funds as the company requested.
Chinatrust eying Chung Shing
Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金控) is still aiming to acquire Chung Shing Bank (中興銀行) after the failure of its earlier bid, a Chinese-language newspaper reported yesterday, citing Chinatrust chief strategic officer Lin Shiaw-pin (林孝平). Chinatrust had asked for NT$30 billion more compensation than the government was willing to pay to an acquirer of Chung Shing, which has NT$88.5 billion (US$2.5 billion) of non-performing assets, the report said. Chinatrust is prepared to restart talks after the government increased a fund it's using to cover bad debts at lenders, the paper said. The government said yesterday that the Land Bank of Taiwan (土地銀行) will take over management of Chung Shing, extending official custody of the troubled lender by six months.
NT dollar hits five-month low
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday continued to test new low against the greenback on the Taipei foreign exchange market, declining NT$0.093 to end at NT$34.993, the lowest in more than five months. Turnover was US$830 million, up from Wednesday's US$711 million.
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