SinoPac Financial Holding Co (建華金控), the nation's 10th largest financial service provider, vowed to wrap up a merger and acquisition (M&A) deal with the most likely candidate -- the International Bank of Taipei (IBT, 台北商銀) -- by the year's end, the firm said yesterday after electing a new board.
The new board also elected Edward Chien (
Chien, former chairman of Hua Nan Commercial Bank (
"SinoPac is a very nice medium-sized financial holding company with development potential ? and I hope to help its expansion [during my chairmanship]," Chien said at a press conference.
Paul Lo (
"Size matters," Lo said at the press conference, adding that it is hard for any bank to survive in Taiwan without a few key elements, including over NT$1 trillion of assets, close to 100 outlets in the greater Taipei area or more than 100 branches nationwide.
Against this backdrop, Lo said SinoPac will complete its M&A plan by the end of this year, as its foreign investors -- which hold over 33 percent of the company -- are running out of patience.
SinoPac was already in merger talks with IBT when former chairman Hong said that he preferred an alliance with Taishin Financial Holding Co (
Previously, IBT proposed to merge with SinoPac with a share-swap ratio of one of its shares for 1.25 to 1.3 SinoPac shares. Taishin meanwhile offered to pay NT$23.50 a share, or a 35 percent premium, to buy SinoPac, which is equivalent to about US$2.9 billion, consisting of as much as 40 percent in cash with the remainder to be paid in shares.
Lo yesterday said that IBT is an ideal candidate, as the merger would boost SinoPac's assets to over NT$1 trillion from the current NT$600 billion.
The financial holding firm favors partnership through a share swap as this will prevent it from having to amortize any goodwill losses, especially since the company has an inadequate cash position to acquire banks at the moment, he added.
Taishin, which pressed libel charges against Lu and SinoPac's spokesman Kevin Peng (
Taishin has therefore withdrawn the charges, the statement read.
Taishin had accused Peng and Lo of sending out incorrect information in two e-mails, on April 18 and April 19, to overseas investors, saying that Taishin chairman Thomas Wu (吳東亮) was not sincere about the merger and had not made a genuine offer.
Greek tourism student Katerina quit within a month of starting work at a five-star hotel in Halkidiki, one of the country’s top destinations, because she said conditions were so dire. Beyond the bad pay, the 22-year-old said that her working and living conditions were “miserable and unacceptable.” Millions holiday in Greece every year, but its vital tourism industry is finding it harder and harder to recruit Greeks to look after them. “I was asked to work in any department of the hotel where there was a need, from service to cleaning,” said Katerina, a tourism and marketing student, who would
i Gasoline and diesel prices at fuel stations are this week to rise NT$0.1 per liter, as tensions in the Middle East pushed crude oil prices higher last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices last week rose for the third consecutive week due to an escalating conflict between Israel and Iran, as the market is concerned that the situation in the Middle East might affect crude oil supply, CPC and Formosa said in separate statements. Front-month Brent crude oil futures — the international oil benchmark — rose 3.75 percent to settle at US$77.01
RECORD LOW: Global firms’ increased inventories, tariff disputes not yet impacting Taiwan and new graduates not yet entering the market contributed to the decrease Taiwan’s unemployment rate last month dropped to 3.3 percent, the lowest for the month in 25 years, as strong exports and resilient domestic demand boosted hiring across various sectors, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. After seasonal adjustments, the jobless rate eased to 3.34 percent, the best performance in 24 years, suggesting a stable labor market, although a mild increase is expected with the graduation season from this month through August, the statistics agency said. “Potential shocks from tariff disputes between the US and China have yet to affect Taiwan’s job market,” Census Department Deputy Director Tan Wen-ling
As they zigzagged from one machine to another in the searing African sun, the workers were covered in black soot. However, the charcoal they were making is known as “green,” and backers hope it can save impoverished Chad from rampant deforestation. Chad, a vast, landlocked country of 19 million people perched at the crossroads of north and central Africa, is steadily turning to desert. It has lost more than 90 percent of its forest cover since the 1970s, hit by climate change and overexploitation of trees for household uses such as cooking, officials say. “Green charcoal” aims to protect what
RSS