Insurer buys in to Taiwan firm
Millea Holdings Inc., formed from the merger of Tokio Marine & Fire Insurance Co and Nichido Fire & Marine Insurance Co, will pay NT$960 million ($28 million) for a 30 percent stake in Taiwan's fourth-biggest car insurer.
Millea will buy the stake in Newa Insurance Co (新安產險) from Yulon Group (裕隆集團), a closely held company that also controls Taiwan's second-biggest automaker, as part of its plans to expand in Asia, Millea said in a faxed statement.
Yulon owns Yulon Motor Co (裕隆汽車), which makes Nissan Motor Co cars in Taiwan.
First Commercial Bank (第一銀行), Taiwan's largest publicly traded lender by assets, also plans to invest in Newa, Millea said in its statement. First Commercial spokesman Chang Yi-hsiung (張義雄) declined to comment on the stake size.
Profits rise for phone company
Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), Taiwan's largest telecom company with 7.3 million customers, said Thursday its net profit in the nine months to September rose 30 percent due to cost cutting in the face of falling revenue.
The state-owned telecom company which enjoys 32 percent market share in Taiwan, reported that the net profit of NT$37.02 billion was the result of a 15.8 percent reduction in costs from the same period a year earlier. Sales fell 4.78 percent to NT$131.95 billion, it added.
Banking laws revised
Vice Minister of Finance Gordon Chen (陳樹) yesterday told a legislative committee that the Ministry of Finance has completed revisions to the Banking Law (銀行法), proposing to toughen criminal penalties against offenders of financial crimes.
A maximum penalty of 25-year jail term will be imposed on financial criminals according to the new revision, he said.
The law currently stipulates that a minimum jail term of 7 years and a maximum of 15 years should be the penalty.
To reinforce the government's crackdown on financial crimes, the vice minister added that the ministry is expected to submit all revisions of finance-related laws to the legislature for further review by the year's end.
Siliconware turns a profit
Siliconware Precision Industries Co (矽品精密), the world's third-largest chip packager, turned a third-quarter profit as sales surged.
The company posted a net income of NT$35 million, compared with a net loss of NT$161 million a year earlier. Sales, posted earlier, rose 45 percent to NT$5.5 billion.
The company cut its net income forecast 63 percent to NT$404 million. Siliconware on Friday slashed its 2002 pretax profit forecast 67 percent to NT$304.7 million after semiconductor demand slowed.
The company had a NT$1.18 billion net loss in 2001.
Taiwan Dollar Gains
The Taiwan dollar had its strongest close in six weeks on speculation of exporter demand for the currency as exporting companies bring home overseas earnings to meet a month-end bookkeeping deadline.
The New Taiwan dollar gained NT$0.049 to close at NT$34.761 against its US counterpart, the highest closing level since Sept. 19, on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
Turnover was US$439 million, compared with the previous day's US$359 million.
A report tomorrow that's expected to show unemployment in the US rose in October, underscoring a slowdown in economic growth, may also weaken the US currency against the Taiwan unit, said Daphne Hsu, a currency trader at The Chinese Bank (中華銀行).
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