Bank of America set to hire
Bank of America Corp, the second-biggest in the US by market value, plans to boost hiring in Taiwan as it starts to trade and underwrite bonds and structured notes by the end of September.
Bank of America has about 200 employees at its sole branch in Taipei, said Wendy Tan, a Bank of America spokeswoman, in a phone interview. She declined to say how many workers may be added.
On June 14, the Financial Supervisory Commission granted Bank of America a license to expand into securities operations. It will arrange structured notes linked to interest rates and currencies, the bank said.
Carlyle considers going public
US private equity firm Carlyle Group LLC is considering going public, potentially following the footsteps of Blackstone Group LP, a managing director of the group said yesterday.
"The Blackstone IPO was highly successful. We are certainly evaluating that option as well," Jason Lee, Carlyle's managing director and head of the group's real estate division in Asia, told Dow Jones Newswires.
"No decisions have been made, and we will do what we believe is best for our investors," Lee said on the sidelines of a real estate conference in Singapore.
Blackstone's US$4.13 billion initial public offering last week has been closely watched by other firms, and reports have recently surfaced that another giant buyout group, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co, is planning its own IPO.
New Taiwan dollar weakens
The New Taiwan dollar weakened on speculation a rally to a five-month high encouraged importers to convert the currency to US dollars to pay for goods bought overseas.
The NT dollar declined NT$0.021 to close at NT$32.785 against the US counterpart on the Taipei Forex Inc. Turnover was US$1.230 billion.
The local currency has risen 2 percent since reaching a 17-month low on May 22, partly on speculation the central bank purchased it to halt five months of losses.
Sadaaki Kondou, assistant general manager of treasury at Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd, said the central bank may be comfortable if the currency is trading between NT$32.50 and NT$33.
Ministry welcomes alliance
Minister of Economic Affairs Steve Chen (陳瑞隆) said yesterday he welcomed a proposed alliance between China Steel Corp (中鋼), the nation's largest steelmaker, and the steelmaking unit of Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團).
Chen's remark came after the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported that China Steel will pursue a plan to form a strategic alliance with the Formosa Plastics Group, citing China Steel's incoming chairman Lin Wen-yuan (林文淵).
As part of the strategic alliance, Formosa Plastics Group will reserve 3 percent of the shares and one board seat in its new steel venture for China Steel, the report said.
Taiwan firms robust in China
The accumulated turnover of the top 1,000 Taiwan-funded companies in China could outpace that of the top 1,000 corporations in Taiwan in five years, according to a new report.
The report, prepared by the Taipei-based China Credit Information Service Ltd (CCIS, 中華徵信所), said the top 1,000 Taiwan-funded companies posted an average 45.88 percent year-on-year growth in business turnover last year, far exceeding the average 16.03 percent increase that was registered by their Taiwan-based counterparts.
If the trend continues, the report said, the top 1,000 Taiwan-funded companies will outshine their Taiwan parents in terms of revenues by 2012.
RSS