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Chang Hwa to auction off 1.4 bn shares this month

Shares of Chang Hwa Commercial Bank (彰化銀行)closed yesterday in positive territory following a latest merger and acquisition news that Singapore's Temasek Holdings Pte (TMSK SP) may be interested in bidding to acquire a stake in Chang Hwa.

Shares rose 0.6 percent to close at NT$17.70 after a Chinese-language newspaper said Temasek Holdings is one of five potential bidders. The report didn't cite anyone.

Chang Hwa spokesman Hsieh Chao-nan (謝昭男) yesterday dismissed the report and refused to disclose names of the bidders who participate in the bank's private placement of 1.4 billion shares, set to be auctioned on July 22, citing confidentiality.

Hsieh said that he has no comment to the report, which also cited other possible bidders including Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控), First Financial Holding Co (第一金控), Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控) and Mega Financial Holding Co (兆豐金控).

He said as the government will conduct inspections on banking institutions' operations and financial books, there is no way that the bank would run the risk of violating the law and refusing to make its financial figures transparent.

"Potential investors certainly will evaluate and inspect Chang Hwa's non-performing loans. If anyone has doubts in our financial operations, they are welcome to check."

Some questioned why the bank waited until this year to write off its huge bad debts, Hsieh argued that it takes time and manpower to conduct the complete procedures with the court.

He refuted market rumors that this movement is aimed at "beautifying" its financial books and making it more attractive to interested investors.

Chang Hwa, the nation's sixth-largest bank by assets, yesterday posted a pretax loss of NT$11.1 billion (US$346 million) in the first half after writing off NT$18.5 billion of bad loans to improve asset quality.

In a filing to the stock exchange, Chang Hwa posted a pretax loss of NT$11.9 billion last month, after writing off NT$13.1 billion of bad loans. The first-half loss compared with a pretax profit of NT$737 million in the same period last year, according to the lender.
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