Shares of KGI Securities Co (
KGI Securities closed up 6.5 percent at NT$13.25 while China Development Financial ended up 2.5 percent at NT$15.7 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
China Development Finan-cial, the nation's 13th-largest financial holding company in terms of total assets, and KGI Securities, which enjoyed a 4.6 percent share of the domestic stock brokerage market last year, denied speculation about the possible acquisition, a Chinese-language newspaper reported yesterday.
"Neither company has confirmed the speculation, but investors see that a strong possibility for such a merger exists, given the Koos' family stake in China Development," George Lai, an analyst at SinoPac Securities Co (
The Koo family, Taiwan's fourth-richest family according to Forbes magazine, took control of China Development in April after former KGI president Angelo Koo (
Unlike other Taiwanese securities firms, KGI Securities has sizeable overseas exposure. According to the Taiwan Ratings Corp (中華信評), about 15 percent of KGI's total network was invested in three overseas subsidiaries in Hong Kong, Korea and Thailand at the end of last year. Taiwan Ratings is an arm of Standard and Poor's ratings agency.
China Development Financial late last month sharply revised downward its earnings forecast for the year to a NT$4.8 billion loss from its original forecast of a NT$8.3 billion profit, it said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange late last month. The company blamed the change in forecast on provisions to cover possible losses on investments.
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