The state-owned Bank of Taiwan (台灣銀行) may revive a plan to acquire smaller state-owned rival Land Bank of Taiwan (土地銀行), paving the way for the creation of the nation's largest bank and a regional heavyweight, the lender said yesterday.
"We are open to any growth options, including further mergers and acquisitions with the lender [Land Bank of Taiwan] as a possible target," Bank of Taiwan chairman Tsai Jer-shyong (蔡哲雄) said during a press conference yesterday.
The bank should grow to at least US$200 billion in assets to be able to compete with international rivals, Tsai said.
Bank of Taiwan currently controls more than US$100 billion in assets after taking over its smaller state-run competitor Central Trust of China (
Tsai, 61, formerly the chairman of the Land Bank of Taiwan, officially took the helm of the nation's biggest bank yesterday, replacing Hsu Teh-nan (許德南), who now chairs the Taiwan Cooperative Bank (合作金庫銀行).
The planned merger between the Bank of Taiwan and the Land Bank of Taiwan was first trumpeted by former premier Frank Hsieh (
Such a deal could make the merged entity the No. 1 lender and one of the world's top 100 in terms of assets.
"But integration is my priority in the first half of the year," Tsai said. "We will not undertake further acquisition activity until integration is completed."
Evolving into a financial holding firm is also an option after the bank's takeover of Central Trust of China, which also has insurance and securities operations, he said.
Tsai did not give a clear time frame for the bank's future expansion plan.
As to whether the 100-percent state-owned Bank of Taiwan should be privatized, he said that would depend on government policy.
Tsai said he supported the idea of state-run banks adopting a private, professional management model, allowing them to take full control of decision-making relating to personnel and budgets.
This would help state banks become as efficient and competitive as their private rivals, he said.
Tsai added that the bank would endeavor to develop its wealth management business and set up footholds in emerging markets in Central and Eastern Europe to serve Taiwanese firms there.
The bank posted profits of between NT$13.5 billion (US$416 million) and NT$14 billion last year, compared with NT$15.2 billion in 2005.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts