The Ministry of Finance will be the major mover behind the Financial Supervisory Commission's plan for the banking sector's consolidation, commission Chairman Kong Jaw-sheng (龔照勝) said yesterday.
On Tuesday, the commission announced its criteria for financial holding companies mergers as part of its efforts to create fewer but bigger financial-service companies.
"Government-owned shares [under the ministry's management] will be the best tool to motivate the financial-service sector's further consolidation," Kong said.
Government-run financial holding companies will soon consider working as a catalyst to induce the sector's mergers and acquisitions (M&As), he said.
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) said in October that he wanted to slash the number of financial holding companies by half from the current 14 by 2006.
Kong said he had called Minis-ter of Finance Lin Chuan (林全) on Tuesday regarding the commis-sion's plan and will later submit the plan to the Cabinet.
While it is up to the Cabinet and the ministry's discretion to carry out the proposal, Kong said the commission will help hammer out concrete measures and incentives to strengthen the consolidation plan, which aims to create one or two leading domestic players in the financial-service sector -- or what the commission called "national champion" banks -- within the next two years.
"Our next-step goal is to create `regional champion' banks within the next three to five years since Taiwan is well positioned to be the region's financial hub, with its advantages as a manufacturing-based economy," Kong said.
On the local bourse, financial shares led gainers yesterday as investors appeared upbeat about the commission's efforts to encourage consolidation.
Mega Financial Holding Co (兆豐金控) gained 0.5 percent to NT$21.40, while First Financial Holding Co (第一金控) rose 0.4 percent to NT$27.50.
The private sector also res-ponded positively to the commission's plan, although many people feel more concrete supportive measures are necessary to make it work.
"I think the government instigated plan is necessary and feasible since the private sector lacks the incentive to consolidate further," Mega Financial's executive vice president Joseph Shieh (謝劍平) said in a telephone interview.
Mega Financial has been mentioned many times as the best catalyst for M&As.
"Mega Financial's sizable assets allow it to seek merger partners since the sector's further consolidation is inevitable," Shieh said.
He added, however, that "it is unlikely that Mega Financial will be merged with other rivals."
Thomas Wu (吳東亮), chairman of Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控), also gave a thumbs-up response to the commission's plan.
"Now that the government has laid down a clear direction, the private sector will understand what to do," he said.
Two government-run financial holding companies -- First Financial and Hua Nan Financial Holding Co (
First Financial executive vice president Huang Hsien-chuang (黃獻全) said his company is "still evaluating the possibility of conducting M&As although no targets have been selected."
First Financial has placed its priority on a corporate streamlining plan to beef up its competitiveness, he said.
Hua Nan Financial has previously expressed interest in merging with First Financial, but was rebuffed on the grounds that the two companies have similar client bases.
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
POWER BUILDUP: Powered by Nvidia’s B200 Blackwell chips, the data center would support MediaTek’s computing power demand and business growth, the company said Smartphone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday launched a new artificial intelligence (AI) data center with a maximum capacity of 45 megawatts to meet its rising demand for computing power required to develop new advanced chips for AI applications. The company has completed the first-phase computing power buildup at the data center in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), providing 15 megawatts of capacity to support its research and development (R&D) capabilities, despite an industrywide shortage of key components, MediaTek said. Supply constraints have plagued a wide range of key components, including memory chips, solid-state drives, power supply units and central
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
RSS