E.Sun Financial Holding Co (玉山金控) yesterday announced that it was forming a partnership with Singapore-based Temasek Holdings Ltd, selling US$400 million of convertible bonds to Asia Financial Holdings Pte Ltd, Temasek's wholly owned subsidiary.
Asia Financial Holdings -- which will make the investment through its 100 percent-controlled subsidiary Adahlis Holdings BV -- will become E.Sun Financial Holding's largest institutional shareholder, with a 15 percent stake, after the conversion of bonds is completed in 2008, E.Sun Financial's spokesman Tu Wu-lin (
Asia Financial Holdings will gain one seat on E.Sun Financial's 13-member board in the shareholders meeting in June after converting the bonds into a 5 percent stake at NT$21.21 per share in one month, Tu said.
The Singaporean firm could obtain a total of two to three seats following the conversion of the rest of the bonds at NT$24.36 per share two years from now, he added.
E.Sun Financial will use the proceeds to strengthen its capital adequacy ratio and for potential merger and acquisition (M&A) activities, Tu said.
"We will not give up any M&A opportunities in the future to sustain our development," he said.
He declined to say whether the company was engaged in any merger talks at the moment.
"We are positive about the partnership amid the recent lackluster [performance of the] finance sector," said Vincent Chang (
Separately, Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控) yesterday signed contracts with Newbridge Capital of the US and Nomura Group of Japan, which had agreed to invest a combined NT$31 billion in the local finance group through a private placement last month.
The deal will enable Taishin Financial to strengthen its capital structure and adequacy while building up its leading position in the nation's finance sector, the company said in a statement released yesterday.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) secured a record 70.2 percent share of the global foundry business in the second quarter, up from 67.6 percent the previous quarter, and continued widening its lead over second-placed Samsung Electronics Co, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said on Monday. TSMC posted US$30.24 billion in sales in the April-to-June period, up 18.5 percent from the previous quarter, driven by major smartphone customers entering their ramp-up cycle and robust demand for artificial intelligence chips, laptops and PCs, which boosted wafer shipments and average selling prices, TrendForce said in a report. Samsung’s sales also grew in the second quarter, up
LIMITED IMPACT: Investor confidence was likely sustained by its relatively small exposure to the Chinese market, as only less advanced chips are made in Nanjing Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) saw its stock price close steady yesterday in a sign that the loss of the validated end user (VEU) status for its Nanjing, China, fab should have a mild impact on the world’s biggest contract chipmaker financially and technologically. Media reports about the waiver loss sent TSMC down 1.29 percent during the early trading session yesterday, but the stock soon regained strength and ended at NT$1,160, unchanged from Tuesday. Investors’ confidence in TSMC was likely built on its relatively small exposure to the Chinese market, as Chinese customers contributed about 9 percent to TSMC’s revenue last
With this year’s Semicon Taiwan trade show set to kick off on Wednesday, market attention has turned to the mass production of advanced packaging technologies and capacity expansion in Taiwan and the US. With traditional scaling reaching physical limits, heterogeneous integration and packaging technologies have emerged as key solutions. Surging demand for artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing (HPC) and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips has put technologies such as chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS), integrated fan-out (InFO), system on integrated chips (SoIC), 3D IC and fan-out panel-level packaging (FOPLP) at the center of semiconductor innovation, making them a major focus at this year’s trade show, according
DEBUT: The trade show is to feature 17 national pavilions, a new high for the event, including from Canada, Costa Rica, Lithuania, Sweden and Vietnam for the first time The Semicon Taiwan trade show, which opens on Wednesday, is expected to see a new high in the number of exhibitors and visitors from around the world, said its organizer, SEMI, which has described the annual event as the “Olympics of the semiconductor industry.” SEMI, which represents companies in the electronics manufacturing and design supply chain, and touts the annual exhibition as the most influential semiconductor trade show in the world, said more than 1,200 enterprises from 56 countries are to showcase their innovations across more than 4,100 booths, and that the event could attract 100,000 visitors. This year’s event features 17