Business Briefs

Fubon may buy back stake
Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) may buy back NT$13 billion (US$381 million) of shares from Taipei City Government, from which it bought TaipeiBank (台北銀行) last year.

Fubon Financial agreed, as part of the takeover agreement, to help the city sell the shares, the company said in a statement. Fubon also kept open the option of repurchasing the shares from the city government, said Victor Kung (龔天行), chief financial officer.

The city government held a stake of about 14 percent in Fubon after swapping shares in TaipeiBank with Fubon's in the takeover, first announced in August last year.
According to the plan, the sale would raise about NT$13 billion for the city government, helping ease its budget deficit, said Lee Sush-der (李樹德), head of the city's finance department.

"We plan to sell Fubon shares for at least NT$32.52 apiece, reflecting the current market price and the possible dividend payout," Lee said.

The city government plans to sell 400 million Fubon Financial shares to lower its stake in the lender to 9.19 percent, he added.

Foreign investment drops
The foreign investment declined 17.6 percent to US$1.5 billion for the first seven months of the year from a year ago, the under the Ministry of Economic Affairs's Investment Commission said yesterday in a statement.

Aside from the impact brought by the outbreak of SARS, the soft global economy and China's economic magnetism also resulted in the downturn in foreign investment, the commission said.

However, it said as the government is seeking to simplify investment regulations, the foreign investment figure is expected to rise gradually for the rest of the year.

Consumer prices rising
The nation's consumer prices last month fell 0.59 percent from a year earlier as fruit, durable goods and home rents fell, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said Friday.

However, last month's consumer price index (CPI) was up 0.36 percent from July on higher food prices, the DGBAS said.

In the eight months to last month, CPI fell 0.31 percent from a year earlier.

The wholesale price index last month rose 2.18 percent from a year earlier and was up 0.53 percent from July, the DGABS said.

Foreign exchange reserves rise
The nation's foreign-currency reserves, the third-highest in the world behind Japan and China, rose to US$185.7 billion last month, the central bank said yesterday.

The bank said foreign reserves rose 2 percent from US$182.2 billion in July.

Company plans China plant
Advanced Semiconductor Engi-neering Inc (日月光) will open its first plant in China by the second half of next year after Taiwan's regulators approved the investment, a Chinese-language newspaper reported, citing company officials.

The factory, to be built by a unit of Advanced Semiconductor, will make materials used to connect semiconductors to printed circuit boards, the report said, citing vice president Lee Chun-che (李俊哲).

Advanced Semiconductor, the world's No. 2 chip packager, and rivals have been waiting for three years for the go-ahead from the government to invest in China.

NT dollar rises
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday traded higher against its US counterpart, rising NT$0.003 to close at NT$34.117 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turn-over was US$531 million.

Agencies