Deutsche Bank bonds are go
The Financial Supervisory Com-mission said yesterday that Deutsche Bank's application to issue the nation's first batch of US dollar-denominated corporate bonds will take effect next Tuesday, seven working days after the foreign bank lodged the application last Friday.
The whole batch of bonds to be traded in Taiwan's offshore bond market is worth US$200 million to US$500 million with a face value of US$10,000 per sheet and a yield of between 4.6 percent and 5 percent, the commission said in a statement released yesterday.
The market regulator is holding a game to name the bond with 15 choices for participants, including Formosa Bond and Taiwan 101 Bond.
Wafer foundries cool heels
The wafer foundry industry will have to wait up to six months for its clients to clear their inventory, a spokesman for Taiwan Semicon-ductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world's largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday.
The comments confirmed a Chinese-language Economic Daily News report, in which company vice chairman Tseng Fan-cheng (曾繁城) also said that the launch of new processors for personal computers and Microsoft's new operating system had not provided a much anticipated boost for the PC market.
"Yes, Tseng did say that," TSMC spokesman Tzeng Jinn-haw (曾晉皓) said on the excess inventory, "but he stopped short of saying the industry will begin witnessing a business upturn afterwards."
King's Town woos Lyu
King's Town Bank (京城銀行), the successor to Tainan Business Bank (台南企銀), announced on Sunday that it had invited former minister of finance Joseph Lyu (呂桔誠) to be the bank's chairman.
After raising NT$3.8 billion (US$115.36 million) and a change of name last year, King's Town has endeavored to promote its business and improve asset quality, lowering its bad loan ratio to 2.26 percent and raising its coverage ratio to 32.07 percent as of last month, the bank said in a filing yesterday.
The bank expected the appointment of Lyu, a seasoned banker, to help enhance operations and strengthen management in light of his experiences at the Bank of Taiwan (台灣銀行), the Land Bank of Taiwan (土地銀行) and foreign financial institutions, the filing said.
Lyu stepped down in July after a five-month stint at the finance ministry amid heavy criticism of the ministry's loss of board seats in state-controlled Mega Financial Holding Co (兆豐金控) to smaller rival Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金控). The loss raised concerns of a conflict of interest.
Money supply growth down
The nation's growth in money supply slowed last month as expansion in bank lending and investment cooled.
M2, the broadest measure of money supply, rose 5.43 percent last month from a year earlier after gaining 5.72 percent in July, the Central Bank of China said yesterday.
M1A, which tracks net currency in circulation plus checking accounts and passbook deposits, gained 3.18 percent last month after climbing 4.58 percent in July, the central bank said.
M1B, which excludes time deposits and foreign-currency deposits included in M2, rose 2.77 percent last month from a year earlier, following a 3.12 percent increase the previous month.
NT dollar gains on greenback
The New Taiwan dollar gained against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, moving up NT$0.001 to close at NT$32.939. A total of US$627 million changed hands during the day's trading.
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