Taiwan Cooperative Bank (
"We are in talks with several foreign institutions about forging strategic alliances, but not about selling a stake," Taiwan Cooperative chairman Sean Chen (
French newspaper La Tribune yesterday reported that BNP Paribas may buy 10 percent of Taiwan Cooperative for around NT$4 billion (US$120 million).
The Commercial Times reported last week that Taiwan Cooperative was expected to sell a 10 percent stake to BNP Paribas in the second half of next year.
Chen described the reports as speculation, saying: "We have yet to reach any concrete agreement."
Currently, Taiwan Cooperative is collaborating with BNP Paribas in selling insurance products.
As of the end of October, Taiwan Cooperative registered NT$1.95 trillion in total assets, the second largest in the local banking industry.
The bank said in May it was in talks to form a strategic alliance with several foreign financial institutions, including BNP Paribas.
Chen An-hsiung (陳安雄), executive vice president of Taiwan Cooperative, said on May 4 that the bank may sell a stake of less than 20 percent to the foreign partner after the alliance has been set up.
Taiwan Cooperative on Nov. 8 agreed to buy smaller rival Farmers Bank of China (
Shares of Taiwan Cooperative rose 0.5 percent to close at NT$19.60 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day