With corporate governance disputes snowballing in the Koo family-run China Development Financial Holding Co (
But Deputy Minister of Finance Liu Teng-cheng (
Shares of China Development rose 1.8 percent to close at NT$14 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday, after the Chinese-language Commercial Times reported that Central Trust of China (
The paper also said that state-run Taiwan Cooperative Bank (
Even the privately run Cathay Financial Holding Co (
However, the newspaper report did not cite sources, and Cathay Financial issued a statement denying it had played any part in a government buy-up.
A Land Bank official who refused to be named yesterday confirmed that the share buying was merely short-term speculation and denied that it had occurred because of an official order.
Commenting on the report, Liu said that the government had not instructed state-run financial institutions to raise their stakes in China Development as "the opportune moment has yet to come."
Minister of Finance Ho Chih-chin (何志欽) announced in September that if the major private shareholder, the Chinatrust Group (中信集團), upheld its promise to increase its stake in China Development to 15 percent before April and has a clean record of corporate governance, the government would gradually release its shares in the firm as part of efforts to boost the banking sector's competitiveness.
If not, the government would increase its shareholdings or solicit proxy votes in order to reestablish managerial control, Ho said at the time.
Angelo Koo (辜仲瑩), whose KGI Securities Co (中信證券) has a stake of less
than 10 percent in China Development, teamed up with the finance ministry —
which now has a stake of between 6 and 7 percent in China Development — to
secure the majority of seats on the China Development board in April 2004.
But China Development's hostile takeover of Taiwan International Securities
Corp (金鼎證券) and the recent string of investigations into Chinatrust
Financial Holding Co (中信金控), chaired by Koo's father Jeffrey Koo (辜濂
松), regarding its controversial investment in Mega Financial Holding Co (兆
豐金控) have raised concern about the Koo family's operational credibility.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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