■ Powerchip to sell new shares
Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (力晶半導體), Taiwan's biggest maker of computer memory chips, yesterday said it plans to sell a maximum of 600 million new shares to raise fund for new cost-saving facilities. "The share sales aim to expand capacity and enhance the company's competitiveness," Powerchip said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp. The company has not decided to sell the shares in the form of global depositary receipts overseas, or corporate bonds at home, according the statement.
■ CPC hit by high oil prices
State-run Chinese Petroleum Corp (CPC, 中油) said yesterday it could incur NT$45 billion (US$1.39 billion) in losses due to historically high crude oil prices. "Imports of crude oil account for more than 80 percent of the CPC's costs. High crude oil prices have imposed tremendous pressure on the company," a CPC spokesman said. "In particular, as a state-owned company, the CPC is not allowed to raise domestic fuel prices in line with international crude prices without government approval," he added. The NT$45 billion forecast losses were based on the crude prices of US$58 to US$62 per barrel, he said. In the first two months of this year, the CPC posted NT$9.3 billion in losses, the spokesman said. The CPC recorded a NT$9.6 billion pre-tax profit last year. The spokesman said CPC would strive to improve operational efficiency to help cushion the negative impact of oil prices.
■ Lawmakers urge reforms
Lawmakers yesterday urged the Financial Supervisory Commission to tighten hostile takeover regulations to prevent a few rich families from monopolizing the nation's finance resources through high financial leverage. Overly loose hostile takeover regulations without proper support measures are unnjust and can cause instability in the financial sector, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Joanna Lei (雷倩) said yesterday. The proposal was made amid the public's growing concern over the Koos family's bids to acquire state-controlled Mega Financial Holding Co (兆豐金控) and private Taiwan International Securities Co (金鼎證券), which controlled combined NT$7 trillion in assets, through Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金控) and China Development Financial Holding Co (中華開發), in which the family controlled a minimal shareholding of 8 percent and 6 percent, respectively.
■ Trust-Mart denies takeover
Trust-Mart (好又多量販), which operates 100 retail stores in China, denied a newspaper report that Wal-Mart Stores Inc, Carrefour SA and Lianhua Supermarket Holdings Ltd (聯華超市) plan to bid for the company. ``It's not true,'' said He Delai (何德來), assistant to the president of Trust-Mart, in a telephone interview in Shanghai yesterday. ``We're still working on an initial public offering in Hong Kong. It's a long and complicated process that depends on many factors,'' he said. The retailers are likely to submit preliminary bids for Trust-mart, founded by Taiwanese entrepreneurs, before a deadline next week, the London-based Financial Times reported yesterday, citing people close to the situation. The retailer is set to be sold for more than US$1 billion, the report said.
■ NT dollar rises
The New Taiwan dollar gained ground against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, climbing NT$0.090 to close at NT$32.421. A total of US$587 million changed hands during the day's trading.
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