Cosmos completes capital injection from SAC and GE

Cosmos Bank Taiwan (萬泰銀行) yesterday completed its recapitalization with an injection of US$900 million from SAC Private Capital Group and GE Money, a company statement said.

Under the capital injection's terms, SAC secured a 58.5 percent stake in Cosmos at a cost of US$650 million while GE Money took up a 23.2 percent stake after injecting US$250 million into the cash-strapped bank, it said.

To complete the capital injection, most of the bank's debtors had agreed to convert their combined NT$13.25 billion in debt securities into Cosmos common stock at NT$2 per share, which translated into a 11.5 percent shareholding, the bank said.

Upon the completion of the capital injection, the bank's 13-member board yesterday elected Simon Williams, an executive partner at SAC, to be its chairman while retaining Hu Chien-chu (胡建助) as president.

"We believe this is an excellent opportunity for SAC PCG in Asia, as it fits well with SAC PCG's expertise and long term operating philosophy," Williams said.

Williams said that his private equity fund is pleased to partner GE Money and looks forward to working with Cosmos.

"I strongly believe that Cosmos will be able to capitalize on its strengths, obtain new skills and become one of the leading niche consumer banks in Taiwan," Hu said, expressing his gratitude to the bank's new shareholders, employees and the financial regulator for their support.

GE Money president Yoshiaki Fujimori said he hoped that the recapitalization plan's completion would enable the bank to position itself for long term growth and regain its confidence.

With the capital injection, Taiwan Ratings Corp removed Cosmos from its credit watch with negative implications and changed it to a positive outlook.