■ Union plans to block sale
Chunghwa Telecom Co's (中華電信) labor union plans to take legal action in this country and the US to halt the proposed overseas sale of as much as US$3.4 billion of shares in the telephone company. "We will file a petition to the Taipei High Administrative Court Wednesday to ask for a suspension before the issue of whether the sale is unconstitutional is resolved," Simon Chang (張緒中), president of Chunghwa Telecom Workers' Union (中華電信工會), said yesterday. The union's move comes after the Council of Grand Justices last Friday rejected a request for a ruling on whether the proposed sale is unconstitutional.
■ Infineon mulls Nanya merger
Infineon Technologies AG, Europe's largest semiconductor maker, is considering combining its unprofitable memory-chip division with the chip business of another company, Sueddeutsche Zeitung said, citing unidentified members of the supervisory board. The company is in exploratory talks with potential partners, the German daily reported. One of the favored partners would be Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), with whom Infineon already runs a joint venture, Sueddeutsche Zeitung said. Supervisory board member Dieter Scheitor told the newspaper that a split from the memory unit looks "increasingly likely," although nothing final has been decided yet. "Strong forces" within Infineon favor an initial public offering, a sale or a combination with another company, he said. ■ Philips moves base to Shanghai Royal Philips Electronics NV last month moved its semiconductor division's Asian headquarters to Shanghai from Taipei, a Chinese-language newspaper reported, citing an unidentified Philips official. Philips restructured its Asian semiconductor division last month, separating it into two divisions: the Greater China region, with its headquarters in Shanghai; and the rest of Asia, the paper said. The Taiwan division will remain staffed and operational, the paper said, citing the official. ■ Fubon buys rival's shares Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) last week bought 23 million shares in rival Taiwan Business Bank (台灣企銀) through its brokerage arm in the open market, a Chinese-language business daily said, without saying where it obtained the information. Taiwan Business Bank has 4.29 billion outstanding shares in total, according to information released by the lender. The equivalent of 23 million shares is about a 0.5 percent stake. Taiwan Business Bank, a lender 44 percent owned by the government, said July 27 it has started inviting bids from local and foreign investors to buy a stake. It has hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc as its financial adviser to evaluate and propose a merger plan. ■ Cogeneration plant planned Formosa Plastics Group (FPG, 台塑) plans to invest NT$2 billion (US$63 million) to build a cogeneration energy plant in this country next year, a Chinese-language newspaper said, without saying where it obtained the information. The plant may provide electricity to the group's affiliated companies and others in the industrial zone in Linyuan (林園), the paper said. Cogeneration is a process in which an industrial facility uses its waste energy to produce heat or electricity. ■ NT dollar gains The New Taiwan dollar gained ground against its US counterpart yesterday, rising NT$0.076 to close at NT$31.844 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$708 million, compared with US$664 million the previous day.
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