Chang Hwa Bank mum on issuance

Chang Hwa Commercial Bank (彰化銀行), the nation's sixth-largest bank by assets, yesterday again refused to declare the winning bidder for its global depositary receipt (GDR) issuance of 1.4 billion shares.

The bank originally hoped to find an overseas investor to buy a stake of nearly 40 percent in the bank through the GDR issuance.

"The sale did not collapse ... we remain in talks with the interested bidders for the moment," the bank's vice president Hsieh Chao-nan (謝昭南) said in a phone interview, after the bank ended a board meeting yesterday morning over the matter.

Hsieh, however, shied away from talking about the moot points that have bogged the deal down by citing confidentiality.

As the board failed to meet a deadline yesterday to complete the sale, the GDR issuance would therefore not be subject to discussion in a shareholders meeting scheduled on June 10, according to related regulations.

But Hsieh said the bank would try to close the deal as soon as possible and convene a provisional general meeting once a result is achieved. He declined to give a clear timeframe. The Ministry of Finance last week said it hoped the deal would be closed no later than year's end.

The deal has attracted two interested buyers: Japan's Shinsei Bank Ltd and a consortium formed by US Lone Star Funds that includes the Carlyle Group Ltd and Dutch ING Groep NV.

The bank prefers a sale price of NT$16 to NT$17 per share while the most likely bid winner, Shinsei Bank, offered NT$12 to NT$13 per share, according to Chinese-language reports yesterday.