Despite a minor deposit loss yesterday, Sunny Bank (陽信商銀) said it faced no imminent liquidity risk, after prosecutors requested on Tuesday that the lender's chairman, his spouse and some executives suspected of embezzlement be detained.
A court ordered yesterday evening that chairman Chen Shen-hung (陳勝宏) and his wife, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Hsueh Ling (薛凌), be released on bail of NT$10 million (US$305 million) each.
"Rumors hurt," Sunny Bank spokesman Kenny Lu (呂沛霖) said in a telephone interview yesterday. "We saw withdrawals of between NT$2 billion to NT$3 billion yesterday alone, compared with an average of NT$1 billion per day."
Aside from the large withdrawals, operations at the bank were normal yesterday, with no liquidity risk. the bank prepared as much as NT$30 billion in cash to cover further withdrawals, Lu said.
Chen and Hsueh are suspected of embezzling NT$600 million.
Sunny Bank denied the accusations, saying that Chen and his wife did not have any outstanding debts and had paid off all their loans.
Outstanding lending to the other board directors and management totals NT$3.1 billion, with full pledges, Lu said.
In response, the Financial Supervisory Commission said it would launch a probe if necessary and impose punitive measures if irregularities were found.
"We are closely monitoring any negative effect and loss of savings," commission spokesperson Susan Chang (張秀蓮) said by telephone. "The bank is financially sound and we hope the depositors will not get jittery."
As of last month, Sunny Bank had recorded profits of NT$389 billion with a bad loan ratio of 2.67 percent and a coverage ratio of 43.4 percent.
The bank's capital adequacy ratio -- used to determine the capital sufficiency of a bank -- was 8.76 percent at the end of last year, official data showed.
The crisis was not expected to harm the lender's plan to attract a foreign investor by the end of this year, which it hopes will help improve its know-how in wealth management and overseas expansion.
"We are in talks with more than three overseas banks for the sale of a 30 percent stake," Lu said.
The bank, which operates 96 branches across the nation, is not considering a full sale at the moment, he said.
Morgan Stanley advises the lender for the share sale.
Lu said the Sunny Bank hopes to make its debut in the local stock exchange next year after it postponed an initial public offering plan by the end of this year due to weakened profitability amid the industry-wide consumer credit abuse problem.
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has approved a capital budget of US$31.28 billion for production expansion to meet long-term development needs during the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. The company’s board meeting yesterday approved the capital appropriation plan for purposes such as the installation of advanced technology capacity and fab construction, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement. At an earnings conference last month, TSMC forecast that its capital expenditure for this year would be at the higher end of the US$52 billion to US$56 billion range it forecast in January in response to robust demand for 5G, AI and
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) investment project in Arizona has progressed better than expected, but it still faces challenges such as water and labor shortages, National Development Council (NDC) Minister Yeh Chun-hsien (葉俊顯) said yesterday. Speaking with reporters after visiting TSMC’s Arizona hub and attending the SelectUSA Investment Summit in Maryland last week, Yeh said TSMC’s Arizona site turned a profit of NT$16.14 billion (US$514 million) last year in its first full year of mass production. “TSMC told me it was surprised by the smooth trial run of the first fab, which has left the company optimistic about the project’s outlook,”
RSS