Taiwan Cellular Corp (
Taiwan Cellular in December spent NT$27.7 billion, through debt financing, to buy 550 million or 5.76 percent shares of the state-run Chunghwa on the premise that the purchase would help it gain some insight into its biggest competitor.
"As the strategic investment plan seems not able to bring concrete benefits [to us], we are considering dropping it," said Daniel Tsai (
The Tsai family-controlled Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控), the nation's largest financial services company, also owns 75 million shares, or a 0.85 percent stake in Chunghwa.
Tsai yesterday made the remarks at a press conference to introduce the company's new president and chief executive officer, Harvey Chang (
Chang, 50, is currently chief financial officer of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電). He is scheduled to take up his post at Taiwan Cellular on Sept. 8.
During his first meeting with the media following the Wednesday announcement of his appointment, Chang said he felt an obligation to help improve Taiwan Cellular's corporate governance and simplify its investment structure, as the company is facing a maturing market environment.
"The first priority for me is to deal with the company's complicated cross-ownership and affiliate-investment structures," Chang said.
At present, Taiwan Cellular owns a 10 percent stake in Taiwan Fixed Network Ltd (
To simplify things, Taiwan Cellular plans to buy-back the one-third stake in itself owned by Taiwan Fixed Network, Tsai said.
"Issuing overseas Depositary Receipts is one of the possibilities Chang is considering to make the sale," he added.
Now that the telecom market is rebounding from last year, many international investment banks have expressed interest in Taiwan Cellular, Tsai said.
Meanwhile, Taiwan Cellular is planning to completely taking over its subsidiary TransAsia Telecommunications Inc (
"In order to increase the synergy, we don't rule out the possibility of removing the brand TsransAsia," Tsai said.
Taiwan Cellular has nearly 9.05 million users or 32 percent of the market, including approximately 2 million users from the Kaohsiung-based TransAsia.
To make sure the company is well-positioned while maintaining healthy profit margins, Chang said a certain degree of corporate reorganization and restructuring would be needed. For instance, he plans to set up an auditory committee chaired by several independent directors on the board to ensure the company's financial reports are both accurate and transparent.
One telecom-market watcher praised the move, saying the adjustment is expected to improve investors' confidence.
"Taiwan Cellular's complicated investment relationship and low transparency are major concerns for investors," said Gary Lai (賴晴風), a telecom analyst at Insight Pacific Investment Research (月涵證券).
He added that although Chang is not a telecom expert, "he is definitely a finance expert and would be able to strengthen Taiwan Cellular's finance structure as well as cut the company's costs."
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
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
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last