■ Chunghwa Telecom shares sold
Taiwan Cellular Corp (台灣大哥大), one of Taiwan's largest mobile service operators, and its subsidiary TransAsia Telecommunications Inc (泛亞電信) sold a combined 120 million shares of state-run Chunghwa Telecom (中華電信).
Taiwan Cellular and TransAsia Telecommunications still own 282 million and 30.58 million Chunghwa Telecom shares, respectively, after unloading 93 million and 29.2 million shares to Deutsche Bank.
Deutsche Bank will in turn sell the shares to overseas investors as American Depositary Receipts.
"It's Taiwan Cellular's policy to sell Chunghwa Telecom shares," said Taiwan Cellular spokesman Cheng Hui-ming (鄭慧明). "And the sale also fulfills our investors' expectations." Cheng declined to reveal the selling price.
■ Park production hits NT$150bn
The production value of the Southern Taiwan Science Park (南部科學園區) reached NT$150 billion (US$4.41 billion) last year, according to preliminary figures released Monday.
Tai Chien (戴謙), the park's administrative director, said the number of manufacturers approved to set up operations in the park last year was 36.
Tai said the stated production value of the park, which has jurisdiction over the Tainan Science Park (台南科學園區) in Tainan County and the Luchu Science Park (路竹科學園區) in Kaohsiung County, came entirely from the Tainan facility.
Allring Tech Co (萬潤科技), which is scheduled to begin mass production this month, will be the first mass production manufacturer in the Luchu facility.
The production value came mostly from the opto-electronic and semiconductor industries in Tainan Science Park.
127 manufacturers have been approved to set up operations in the Southern Taiwan Science Park -- 112 in Tainan and 15 in Luchu.
■ Mosel sells ProMOS shares
Mosel Vitelic Inc (茂矽), a maker of computer memory chips, said it sold a 4.6-percent stake in ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德). The value of the shares was NT$2.4 billion.
The company said it sold 180 million shares in ProMOS, reducing its stake to 621 million shares, or 16.1 percent of ProMOS, Mosel said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
The shares were sold on Friday to a Mosel unit for NT$13.1 a share, the price at which the stock closed. Mosel said it booked a gain of NT$520 million from the transaction.
■ Fubon mentioned in bank deal
Fubon Group (富邦) or another Taiwanese group may help Banco de Oro acquire Equitable PCI Bank, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported, citing an unidentified source.
Banco de Oro, the ninth-largest Philippine lender by assets, on Jan. 4 agreed to buy 26 percent of Equitable, the country's No. 3 bank, from a state pension fund. Banco de Oro said it will pay 43.50 pesos a share for 187.8 million shares, or about 8.17 billion pesos (US$148 million) in cash and 6 1/2-year bonds.
Banco de Oro Chairwoman Teresita Sy denied Fubon had made an offer. Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) is Taiwan's second-largest financial services provider.
■ NT dollar higher
The New Taiwan dollar rose to its highest level in three months on speculation that overseas money managers will boost demand for the currency after making their largest equities purchases in almost 21 months.
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday traded higher against its US counterpart, rising NT$0.071 to close at NT$33.717 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
Turnover was US$1.23 billion.
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