TDC price monitored, says commission

Changes in the share prices of controversial Taiwan Develop-ment Corp (TDC, 台灣土地開發) were monitored at four critical periods, including the time it published its annual report, the nation's top financial regulator said yesterday.

Lu Daung-yen (呂東英), acting chairman of the Financial Supervisory Commission, said the TDC share price surged 131.66 percent after it published its annual report. That was an "important" time, Lu said, without explaining why.

The other three occasions were when TDC sold its trust arm, when a deal was signed in which a syndicate of 19 banks agreed to loan it a total of NT$16.5 billion (US$513.3 million), and when its shares resumed normal trading on the stock exchange, Lu said.

On the first occasion, between April 1 and May 3, TDC shares rose 6.47 percent. From July 1 to Aug. 25, when the loan deal was signed, the share price went up 17.98 percent and when TDC shares were trading again on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, the share price was up 6.8 percent between Oct. 1 and Nov. 3, last year, Lu said.

When TDC published its annual report saying that each share earned NT$7.28, the share price soared 131.66 percent. These price changes were duly published, he said.

With regard to the suspected insider trading of TDC shares owned by Changhua Commercial Bank (彰化銀行), Lu said the bank's decision to get rid of the shares in March last year did not break any laws.