Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電訊), the nation's third-biggest mobile phone operator, said yesterday it plans to buy a major stake in fixed-line service operator New Century Infocomm Tech Co (NCIC, 新世紀資通) from Singapore Telecommunications Ltd (SingTel) via a share swap.
Far EasTone would issue 160.37 million new shares in exchange for SingTel's 24.51 percent holding of NCIC, the company said in a statement.
The exchange would give SingTel a 3.98 percent stake in Far EasTone, as well as access to Taiwan's mobile-phone industry. It would also make SingTel Far EasTone's second-largest foreign institutional shareholder after NTT DoCoMo, which has a 4.7 percent stake.
exchange
Each Far EasTone share would be exchanged for 6.11 NCIC shares, the statement said.
That meant Far EasTone would be buying NCIC at NT$6.22 per share -- based on Far EasTone's closing price of NT$38 yesterday -- and at a 19 percent discount to NCIC's book value of NT$7.65 per share.
"Far EasTone is taking this action to improve efficiency in the enterprise market as well as in the international phone market," Far EasTone president Jan Nilsson told a press briefing yesterday following the board's approval of the acquisition.
After the deal, Far EasTone's market share in the enterprise area may nearly quadruple from 5 percent now, Nilsson said.
Over the next three-year period, Far EasTone would add NT$1.8 billion (US$54.5 million) in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization beginning next year in the wake of the deal, Nilsson said.
timetable
The transaction is scheduled to be completed by the end of this year. SingTel may have a seat in Far EasTone's board, Nilsson said.
"This is one piece of the puzzle to fulfill our vision of providing convergent services," Nilsson said.
Far EasTone forecast yesterday that its third-quarter pre-tax profit would dip 2.7 percent sequentially to NT$3.7 billion, while consolidated revenues would rise 6.2 percent to NT$16.8 billion.
SEEKING CLARITY: Washington should not adopt measures that create uncertainties for ‘existing semiconductor investments,’ TSMC said referring to its US$165 billion in the US Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) told the US that any future tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors could reduce demand for chips and derail its pledge to increase its investment in Arizona. “New import restrictions could jeopardize current US leadership in the competitive technology industry and create uncertainties for many committed semiconductor capital projects in the US, including TSMC Arizona’s significant investment plan in Phoenix,” the chipmaker wrote in a letter to the US Department of Commerce. TSMC issued the warning in response to a solicitation for comments by the department on a possible tariff on semiconductor imports by US President Donald Trump’s
The government has launched a three-pronged strategy to attract local and international talent, aiming to position Taiwan as a new global hub following Nvidia Corp’s announcement that it has chosen Taipei as the site of its Taiwan headquarters. Nvidia cofounder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Monday last week announced during his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei that the Nvidia Constellation, the company’s planned Taiwan headquarters, would be located in the Beitou-Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區) in Taipei. Huang’s decision to establish a base in Taiwan is “primarily due to Taiwan’s talent pool and its strength in the semiconductor
An earnings report from semiconductor giant and artificial intelligence (AI) bellwether Nvidia Corp takes center stage for Wall Street this week, as stocks hit a speed bump of worries over US federal deficits driving up Treasury yields. US equities pulled back last week after a torrid rally, as investors turned their attention to tax and spending legislation poised to swell the US government’s US$36 trillion in debt. Long-dated US Treasury yields rose amid the fiscal worries, with the 30-year yield topping 5 percent and hitting its highest level since late 2023. Stocks were dealt another blow on Friday when US President Donald
UNCERTAINTY: Investors remain worried that trade negotiations with Washington could go poorly, given Trump’s inconsistency on tariffs in his second term, experts said The consumer confidence index this month fell for a ninth consecutive month to its lowest level in 13 months, as global trade uncertainties and tariff risks cloud Taiwan’s economic outlook, a survey released yesterday by National Central University found. The biggest decline came from the timing for stock investments, which plunged 11.82 points to 26.82, underscoring bleak investor confidence, it said. “Although the TAIEX reclaimed the 21,000-point mark after the US and China agreed to bury the hatchet for 90 days, investors remain worried that the situation would turn sour later,” said Dachrahn Wu (吳大任), director of the university’s Research Center for
RSS