The SinoPac Financial Holding Co (建華金控) plans to merge with smaller rival International Bank of Taipei (IBT, 台北商銀) through a share-swap deal, the companies announced late last night at a press conference.
Each IBT share will be traded for 1.36 SinoPac shares, the companies said. The deal is scheduled to be approved at a special shareholder meeting each on Aug. 26, the companies said in a joint statement.
The merger is expected to be completed by the end of this year.
The merger will help develop SinoPac Financial into the nation's eighth-largest financial service provider with NT$1.002 trillion (US$31.8 billion) in assets, the companies said in the statement. SinoPac is currently in 10th place.
The deal will also help SinoPac to expand its number of branches to 161, which includes 32 overseas outlets.
The newly-merged entity will have a non-performing loan ratio of 1.4 percent, with a market share of 3.6 percent in terms of deposits and lending, the statement said.
The announcement came after the two financial institutions each held a board meeting yesterday to discuss the merger.
After electing a new board, SinoPac Financial said on May 24 that it had vowed to wrap up a merger deal with the IBT by the end of the year.
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