■ Liu wins Bowa board's OK
Victor Liu (劉維琪), chairman of Bowa Bank (寶華銀行), will take the helm of Waterland Financial Holding Co (國票金控) after the firm's board approved the appointment at a meeting yesterday, according to the Central News Agency. The board, however, did not approve the appointment of Chen Ming-jen (陳明仁), Chang Hwa Commercial Bank's (彰化銀行) managing director for the presidency of the nation's smallest financial-service provider. Chen was nominated by Waterland's largest shareholder, Nice Group (耐斯). The nomination for presidency would be left for discussion in the next, but undated, board meeting after the Financial Supervisory Commission validates Liu's appointment, CNA reported. Nice took five of the 11 seats on Waterland's board on June 29 after months of intense competition with another investor group led by Hung San-hsiung (洪三雄). Hung, chairman of Taiwan Financial Asset Services Corp (台灣金服公司), and his supporters grabbed four seats. The Ministry of Finance made up the remainder of the seats.
■ Chunghwa wins Philips order
Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (中華映管) has obtained orders for 32-inch flat-panel displays used in TVs from Royal Philips Electronics NV, a Chinese-language daily reported yesterday, without saying where it obtained the information. The new orders will mean Chunghwa Picture's monthly shipments of the 32-inch displays will be at least between 30,000 and 40,000 units, the newspaper said. Bigger rivals AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) and Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子) have also recently became suppliers of 32-inch panels for Samsung Electronics Corp, another paper quoted an unspecified Samsung official as saying. Both AU Optronics and Chi Mei declined to comment on the news. The report said shipment of AU Optronics' 32-inch TV panels is expected to surpass Chi Mei for the first time and reach 80,000 units this month, compared to Chi Mei's 70,000 to 80,000.
■ Banks invited to seminar
Taiwanese financial companies that have set up offices in China have been invited to a seminar in the Yunnan Province next month, a Chinese-language paper reported, citing an unidentified Taiwanese banking representative. For the first time, China's Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council has invited Taiwanese representatives to the seminar, which will be held from Aug. 4 to Aug. 8, the paper said. Several Taiwanese banks are active in China. Hua Nan Commercial Bank (華南銀行), Bank of Taiwan (台灣銀行) and Taiwan Business Bank (台灣企銀) are among 69 lenders hat operate so-called offshore banking units (OBUs), according to central bank data. The OBUs serve overseas clients, including Taiwanese businesses in China. The government plans to allow Chinese banks to open representative offices in Taiwan, Financial Supervisory Commission Chairman Kong Jaw-sheng (龔照勝) said on June 23.
■ NT dollar drops
The New Taiwan dollar fell for a second day in three yesterday on speculation a decline in the yen to a 14-month low against the US dollar will increase pressure on the central bank to sell its currency to protect exporter profits. The NT dollar slid NT$0.065 to close at NT$32.001 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$754 million, down from US$961 million on Tuesday. The yen dropped 9.2 percent against the US dollar this year, the worst performer among 15 Asia-Pacific currencies tracked by Bloomberg, compared with a decline of 0.8 percent in the NT dollar.
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