Plans of a merger between SinoPac Financial Holdings Co (建華金控) and Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控) made a comeback yesterday, with SinoPac's chairman stressing that shareholders might discuss the proposal thoroughly next month.
"The talks with Taishin did not collapse," Richard Hong (
"Both Taishin and International Bank of Taipei (IBT, 台北商銀) are good merger partners, but the final decision should be made during the annual general meeting on May. 10," he said.
Hong made the remark despite a statement by Taishin chairman Thomas Wu (吳東亮) on March 29 that talks to buy SinoPac had collapsed because its rival wanted to merge with IBT. At the time, Wu also said that SinoPac and Taishin disagree about management restructuring.
But Hong, who was reported to favor a partnership with Taishin, said that he had contacted Wu personally and obtained a letter of intent from him on March 14 offering a 35 percent premium to buy SinoPac for NT$23.50 a share. In the meantime, SinoPac has not yet received a written proposal from IBT, he added.
The letter further states that Paul Lo (盧正昕), president of SinoPac, would hold the position of vice chairman and co-CEO after the merger, Hong said.
With over 80 branches in northern Taiwan, IBT has a larger market presence than Taishin, making IBT a suitable partner for SinoPac, Hong said.
But he noted that foreign investors, who own 30 percent of SinoPac, as well as the other shareholders, have the right to know the details of the proposed merger -- a remark that suggested foreign investors had not been informed of Taishin's merger proposal.
Any future discussion relating to possible mergers must involve independent consultations with professionals to ensure a fair and equitable evaluation, must be advantageous to shareholders of both parties and should seek consensus from the board of directors of SinoPac, Hong said.
Taishin president Julius Chen (
"The merger deal with SinoPac was off three days ago, and whether we will make another offer depends on SinoPac's decision," Chen said, adding that if SinoPac still considers merging with Taishin, the company will convene a board meeting to discuss the issue.
NO BREAKTHROUGH? More substantial ‘deliverables,’ such as tariff reductions, would likely be saved for a meeting between Trump and Xi later this year, a trade expert said China launched two probes targeting the US semiconductor sector on Saturday ahead of talks between the two nations in Spain this week on trade, national security and the ownership of social media platform TikTok. China’s Ministry of Commerce announced an anti-dumping investigation into certain analog integrated circuits (ICs) imported from the US. The investigation is to target some commodity interface ICs and gate driver ICs, which are commonly made by US companies such as Texas Instruments Inc and ON Semiconductor Corp. The ministry also announced an anti-discrimination probe into US measures against China’s chip sector. US measures such as export curbs and tariffs
The US on Friday penalized two Chinese firms that acquired US chipmaking equipment for China’s top chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯國際), including them among 32 entities that were added to the US Department of Commerce’s restricted trade list, a US government posting showed. Twenty-three of the 32 are in China. GMC Semiconductor Technology (Wuxi) Co (吉姆西半導體科技) and Jicun Semiconductor Technology (Shanghai) Co (吉存半導體科技) were placed on the list, formally known as the Entity List, for acquiring equipment for SMIC Northern Integrated Circuit Manufacturing (Beijing) Corp (中芯北方積體電路) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International (Beijing) Corp (中芯北京), the US Federal Register posting said. The
India’s ban of online money-based games could drive addicts to unregulated apps and offshore platforms that pose new financial and social risks, fantasy-sports gaming experts say. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government banned real-money online games late last month, citing financial losses and addiction, leading to a shutdown of many apps offering paid fantasy cricket, rummy and poker games. “Many will move to offshore platforms, because of the addictive nature — they will find alternate means to get that dopamine hit,” said Viren Hemrajani, a Mumbai-based fantasy cricket analyst. “It [also] leads to fraud and scams, because everything is now
MORTGAGE WORRIES: About 34% of respondents to a survey said they would approach multiple lenders to pay for a home, while 29.2% said they would ask family for help New housing projects in Taiwan’s six special municipalities, as well as Hsinchu city and county, are projected to total NT$710.65 billion (US$23.61 billion) in the upcoming fall sales season, a record 30 percent decrease from a year earlier, as tighter mortgage rules prompt developers to pull back, property listing platform 591.com (591新建案) said yesterday. The number of projects has also fallen to 312, a more than 20 percent decrease year-on-year, underscoring weakening sentiment and momentum amid lingering policy and financing headwinds. New Taipei City and Taoyuan bucked the downturn in project value, while Taipei, Hsinchu city and county, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung
RSS