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■ Record bail set for Hu
Taipei prosecutors yesterday agreed to release Hu Hung-chiu (胡洪九), the former chief financial officer of Asia Pacific Wire and Cable Corp (太平洋電線電纜), on bail of a record NT$120 million. Hu was indicted on charges of embezzling a huge amount of money from the company. But Hu's family failed to deliver the record-breaking bail as of 6pm yesterday, so Hu is still under custody, a Chinese-language newspaper reported on its Web site. The prosecutors made the decision as Hu's attorney argued that Hu has returned part of the money back to the company, and that Hu can no longer endure detention because of his poor health, it said. Hu was charged with having stolen approximately NT$17.1 billion from 1993 to 1998 when he worked at Asia Pacific Wire and Cable Corp. At the end of last year, Hu received a 20-year sentence with a fine of NT$1 billion.

■ SMBS seeks no mergers
Despite the government's all-out efforts to push forward with the "second stage financial reform" (二次金改), the Shanghai Commercial and Savings Bank (SMBS, 上海商銀) does not consider seeking merger-and-acquisition (M&A) possibilities, a bank chief said yesterday. "Mid-size financial institutions, like Shanghai Commercial, have their own edge in the competitive market. What we can do is not entirely what large-scale players can do," said Chen Yi-ping (陳逸平), Shanghai Commercial's president. Citing recent merger examples, he said the banking entities merged under financial holding companies do not gain much growth in terms of market share. "The success rate is less than 30 percent," he said. Shanghai Commercial last year reported an after-tax earning per share (EPS) of NT$3.71, taking the lead among banking institutions. Chen predicted that it can achieve more than NT$4 per share this year.

■ Morris Chang gets award
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufac-turing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman Morris Chang (張忠謀) was yesterday awarded the Nihon Keizai Shimbun's Nikkei Asia Prize for 2005 in recognition of his contributions to regional growth, according the TSMC. The influential Japanese economic daily launched the annual Nikkei Asia Prizes in 1996 to award three individuals or groups from Asian regions, excluding Japan, who have dedicated themselves to the Asian economy, improvements in the region's standard of living and cultural development. The prizes are divided into three categories: regional growth; science, technology and innovation; and culture. Chang will receive the prize at an awards ceremony to be held in Tokyo tonight, and is scheduled to deliver a keynote speech at an international conference titled "The Future of Asia" tomorrow.

■ Mutual funds to HK stopped
Taiwan halted plans to sell mutual funds in Hong Kong because of possible changes in cross-strait relations, a Chinese-language newspaper reported, citing an unidentified official at the Financial Supervisory Commission. The leaders of Taiwan's two main opposition parties rejected independence during visits to China, while President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) reaffirmed his rejection of the "one-China" principle. The Financial Supervisory Commission and Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission had planned to sign an agreement as early as last month.

■ NT dollar trades lower
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday traded lower against its US counterpart, declining NT$0.096 to close at NT$31.411 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$788 million.

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