Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控) is in talks with several international investors interested in buying part of its 25 percent holding in Chang Hwa Bank (彰化銀行) as the required deadline approaches, the company said yesterday.
"We are conducting intensive talks with some overseas investors about the disposal of part of our shareholding in Chang Hwa," Carol Lai (賴昭吟), spokesperson of the nation's second biggest financial group by assets, told the Taipei Times yesterday.
"We intend to sell to a single foreign buyer," Lai said.
She declined to comment on whether the interested overseas investors included Taishin Financial's foreign shareholders Newbridge Capital Inc and QE International Ltd, a fund controlled by hedge fund tycoon George Soros.
The financial regulator instructed Taishin Financial to sell a 2.5 percent stake in Chang Hwa by June 15 because of the company's failure to meet certain financial requirements in the process of stepping up its holding to 30 percent from its previous 22.5 percent.
Taishin Financial said last month that it expected to complete a share swap with Chang Hwa by the end of this year.
The rapid expansion of foreign buyers in the local market through mergers and acquisitions has made it a pressing matter.
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