The nation's top financial regulator said the first takeover of a bank in Taiwan by an overseas investor will take place this year.
"Several real deals are entering final negotiations soon," Kong Jaw-sheng (
Kong, seeking to consolidate the nation's almost 50 lenders to improve their efficiency, said Taiwan's plan is more attractive than investing in lenders in China because the investor gets management control. The acquirer would gain access to a US$700 billion banking market where the number of millionaires swelled 6.4 percent last year to 55,400, according to a June 10 report issued by Merrill Lynch & Co.
"Taiwan is more open than China and you can take management control over a Taiwanese bank as a test before you go to China," said Andrew Chen, who oversees the equivalent of US$2.4 billion as president of HSBC Asset Management Taiwan in Taipei. "Taiwan also offers business opportunities in wealth management and channels to get contacts with Taiwanese businessmen in China."
Kong, appointed the top financial regulator in July 2004, said executives of several leading European and US financial companies have visited him to discuss investment targets.
China's "big four" banks are reorganizing themselves, including cutting their non-performing loans and selling stakes to strategic investors, to tap foreigners' expertise ahead of initial public offerings. The country allows overseas banks to buy up to 25 percent of its domestic lenders, with one financial institutional not acquiring more than 20 percent.
"In China, they invest huge money but can't get management control," Kong said in the interview. "In Taiwan, we can allow them to have management control or even 100 percent ownership of a bank. They can also leverage Taiwanese talent and systems to expand their businesses in Asia."
The commission has recently proposed further openings toward financial ties with China.
"I proposed Taiwanese banks can acquire smaller-sized regional or city banks in China if they have trading licenses of yuan," said Kong. "This still needs approval by the Cabinet and the President's Office, but I think it's just a matter of time."
Kong said the proposal is not for Taiwanese banks to buy big Chinese lenders or even second-tier national banks, as they will need a large capital base. Currently, seven Taiwanese banks have representative offices in China waiting to be upgraded to branches.
Kong will lead a delegation, including senior executives from 16 of Taiwan's leading companies, to attend an investor forum in New York on Oct. 13-14 and London on Oct. 17-18, sponsored by Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC.
"Our main purposes are to update industry development, financial reform and improve industry competitiveness," Kong said. The Taiwanese companies being represented include Cathay Financial Holding Co (
He will use the opportunity to introduce the commission's planned foreign currency-denominated stock exchange, the so-called international board, to overseas investors.
The commission plans to start operations of the international board by early next year, Kong said.
"For the first year of operation, we expect 10 to 20 listings of good companies," Kong said. "Within two years, we wish to have 60-80 listings; three to five years, more than 100."
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last