The Union Bank of Taiwan (
The local lender said it had raised the funds via a private placement, adding that it would use the new capital to improve its financial structure and enhance its capital adequacy ratio.
The placement will increase the bank's capitalization to NT$23.19 billion from NT$19.19 billion.
The bank plans to lift its capital adequacy ratio, or Bank of International Settlements (BIS) ratio, which measures a bank's financial strength, to more than 10 percent, Union Bank executive vice president Herman Tu (
SHARES RISE
Shares in Union Bank rose NT$0.25 or 3.19 percent to NT$8.08 on the local stock market yesterday soon after the filing was submitted to the stock exchange.
On Sept. 7, the board of Union Bank passed a plan to raise new capital through the issue of 400 million preferred shares at NT$10 per share.
While many foreign institutions have tapped into Taiwan's banking industry and participated in the recapitalization plans of several local lenders, Tu said that Union Bank was not interested in bringing foreign strategic investors on board.
"We did not extend invitations to foreign investors to participate in the capitalization plan," Tu said.
Tu didn't elaborate on why foreign investors had not been sought, but Union Bank president Jeff Lin (
Under yesterday's filing, Union Bank said its new preferred shares had all been subscribed by affiliated companies that are either controlled or managed by the bank's board of directors and existing major shareholders.
RETAIL BANKING
Union Bank, established in 1992, is a small commercial bank concentrating on the retail banking business.
The bank has seen its capitalization and profitability weakened in the wake of the consumer loans crisis.
The bank had NT$6 billion in non-amortized losses for the first half of the year from bad credit card loans, which will be amortized over the next five years at NT$130 million each month.
Last month, the bank posted NT$542.1 million in sales, a drop of 41.96 percent from a year earlier. For the first eight months of the year, its revenues amounted to NT$6.08 billion, down 21.81 percent from the same period of last year.
NEW CAPITALIZATION
In May, Fitch Ratings said the local lender would need a total of between NT$7 billion and NT$8 billion in new capitalization to improve its adjusted BIS ratio to 8 percent.
Market watchers have speculated that the bank is likely to try another fundraising plan by the end of the year to further improve its financial structure.
But Tu dismissed this speculation yesterday, saying: "This is it. We won't have another around of fundraising this year."
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
Intel Corp yesterday reinforced its determination to strengthen its partnerships with Taiwan’s ecosystem partners including original-electronic-manufacturing (OEM) companies such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電). “Tonight marks a new beginning. We renew our new partnership with Taiwan ecosystem,” Intel new chief executive officer Tan Lip-bu (陳立武) said at a dinner with representatives from the company’s local partners, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the US chip giant’s presence in Taiwan. Tan took the reins at Intel six weeks ago aiming to reform the chipmaker and revive its past glory. This is the first time Tan
RSS