Opposition lawmakers yesterday questioned finance officials about the government's role in recent sales of shares in the form of global depository receipts (GDRs) by state-owned banks, including First Commercial Bank (
Chairing a legislative hearing, People First Party legislator Christina Liu (劉憶如) yesterday blamed finance officials for their failure to map out a fair trading mechanism, preventing potential arbitrageurs (traders who simultaneously purchase and sell the same securities, commodities, or forex in disparate markets to profit from unequal prices) from profiteering during recent GDR sales that were part of the banks' recapitalization plans.
"Similar flaws were found in both First Commercial and Chang Hwa GDR sales, yet the Ministry of Finance did nothing to review the problem," Liu said.
According to Liu, the pricing discrepancy between First Commercial's GDRs and local stock shares in July was NT$7 per share, which meant that there were capital gains of up to NT$7 billion in the bank's sale of 1 billion new shares.
Chang Hwa planned to raise NT$13.5 billion through the issuing of GDRs last week. Its pricing discrepancy was NT$3 per share, allowing capital gains of up to NT$1 billion in the deal, she added.
Liu said that the ministry should come up with a regulatory plan to prevent insider trading and other irregularities between securities contractors and private investors.
In response, Vice Minister of Finance Gordon Chen (陳樹) told the legislative hearing that a discount on GDR sales to overseas investors was inevitable and the government can do nothing to interfere with basic market principles.
"As long as no trading irregularities are found, a reasonable pricing discrepancy should be tolerated in the market," Chen said.
But he added that the government has revised laws to scrap restrictions on the GDR sale's lock-up period, which is expected to help narrow the pricing discrepancy and keep speculators away.
The lock-up period refers to an interval during which an investment may not be sold. In the case of an initial public offering (IPO), employees may not sell their shares for a period of time determined by the underwriter and usually lasting 180 days.
Displeased with Chen's answers, Liu said that original stockholders as well as private investors should be compensated and allowed to acquire the profitable GDR shares since the value of their old shares may be diluted by the sale.
Liu disagreed with the MOF's U-turn on its decision last week, asking the management committee of the Development Fund (
After the ministry has relinquished its right to take up the shares, domestic investors should be allowed to purchase shares, Liu said.
"The Development Fund is not entitled to such profitable shares and the ministry's decision runs counter to its goal to privatize state-owned banks," Liu said.
The ministry previously asked a securities company to locate private investors for the 5-percent-stake sale, but later came under heavy criticism from opposition lawmakers, who accused the ministry of insider trading.
Another PFP legislator, Norman Yin (
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day