Unlike last week, when Enterprise Bank of Hualien (
The Central Depository Insurance Co (CDIC,
If no satisfactory offers were received today, the matter would be referred to the government's restructuring fund committee, CDIC president Johnson Chen (
For yesterday's auction, Taitung Business Bank was divided into two lots. The first consisted of the bank's 31 branches while the second was comprised of three batches of bad loan assets.
"Only one foreign bidder participated [in the bidding for the first lot] today [yesterday] and no agreement was reached after three rounds of bidding," Chen said.
He declined to name the bidder directly, but admitted that local media had correctly speculated on the prospective buyer's identity. Recent reports suggested that ABN AMRO Bank Taiwan was interested in acquiring troubled local banks, following in the footsteps of rivals Standard Chartered Bank and Citibank.
Meanwhile, the CDIC said that only two of Taitung Business Bank's bad loan assets were sold yesterday. One was secured by Orix Taiwan with an offer of NT$513 million (US$15.53 million) for a secured portfolio worth NT$5 billion, and the other went to asset management company Liang Jing (
Taitung Business Bank was taken over by the CDIC in December last year with a book value of minus NT$2.48 billion. The bank's value declined further to minus NT$4.1 billion as of April, government data showed.
As potential buyers showed limited interest in the sale, the CDIC said it would allow the successful bidder to relocate as many as 21 of Taitung Business Bank's branches within the next five years, without any geographical restrictions.
In comparison, the auction of the Hualien bank last Thursday attracted five interested buyers. Chinatrust Commercial Bank (中國信託商銀) won the bid with the lowest offer of NT$4.49 billion, which is the amount the CDIC needs to pay out to compensate the buyer for absorbing the debt-ridden bank.
Chinatrust Commercial is allowed to relocate 16 of the Hualien lender's branches in the next five years, without any geographical restrictions.
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
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six