Pacific Electric Wire & Cable Co (太平洋電線電纜), the nation's largest copper-wire maker, plans to ask creditors next month to lower interest and extend payment on NT$17 billion (US$493 million) of debt, spokesman Kuo Chuan (郭傳) said.
The stock plunged by the 7 percent daily limit after the company said it will ask 54 creditors on Feb. 11 to lower interest charges to 4 percent from as much as 7 percent.
It also will ask creditors, including Hua Nan Financial Holdings Co (
"Investors will shun companies with doubtful finances," said Jerry Chen, who manages NT$3.5 billion Excellent Fund at First Global Investment Trust Co (
The company may post a net loss for last year, its second one, after a Taipei Court granted Safeco Insurance Co's request to freeze NT$1.2 billion of assets.
Safeco alleges Texas-based Pacific USA Holdings Corp, a wholly owned unit of Pacific Electric Wire, failed to fulfill a supply contract. Pacific Electric Wire is appealing the ruling, Kuo said.
"The lawsuit was totally unexpected and has distressed our asset-allocation and debt-payment plans," Kuo said.
Persuading creditors may be tough as the government urges banks to clear bad loans accumulated in a 2001 recession and a decade-long property slump so they can compete with foreign rivals.
"Bankers are less welling to compromise as corporate failures during recent slowing economy rattled their confidence," Kuo said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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