Print

Mail

wiki links

Idee employees protest in Taipei

Idee Department Store employees hold a protest in front of the Idee Taipei branch yesterday. PHOTO: CHO YI-CHUN, TAIPEI TIMES

About 300 Idee Department Store (衣蝶百貨) employees held an hour-long protest in Taipei yesterday in a bid to safeguard their jobs and other interests. The strike forced the department store to close its doors from 11am to 2pm.

Protesters opposed the impounding of the Idee brand name by the company's major creditor, Mega International Commercial Bank (兆豐銀行), which would make it difficult for the retailer to transfer its ownership to potential buyers, a company representative said yesterday.

China Rebar Co (中國力霸), the parent company of Idee Department Stores, went bankrupt last year following a financial scandal at Rebar Asia Pacific Group (力霸亞太企業集團).

"China Rebar paid a total of NT$1.6 billion between 1999 and 2006 to its debtor, Mega Bank. As China Rebar's Tungshan River Concrete Factory (冬山河水泥廠) in Ilan was pledged as collateral to Mega Bank and is set to be sold for NT$3 billion. These sums together total NT$4.6 billion, far in excess of the NT$3.75 that China Rebar originally borrowed from Mega Bank," Kris Mao (毛幼銘), manager of the sales and promotion department at Idee, said yesterday.

"Our wish is to transfer ownership of the department store to another business for a good price, so that the stores can continue operating without the risk of their becoming another Alexander."

Liu Chih-kao, manager of general affairs at Taoyuan Idee

"Mega bank made a filing with the district court on Nov. 6 to impound Idee's brand name, which blocked the possibility of the transfer of Idee's ownership to potential buyers," Mao said, adding the uncertainty over the company's future had affected the lives of Idee's 2,000 employees.

"Our wish is to transfer ownership of the department store to another business for a good price, so that the stores can continue operating without the risk of their becoming another Alexander," Liu Chih-kao (劉志高), manager of the general affairs division at Taoyuan Idee, said yesterday, in reference to Alexander Group (亞力山大集團), which closed all of its outlets last month.

China Rebar held its first public auction of Idee Department Store on Nov. 26, with a floor price of NT$1.8 billion. Although three potential buyers had expressed an interest prior to the auction, only Shinkong Synthetic Fibers Corp (新光合成纖維) made a bid of NT$705 million, agreeing to be responsible for no less than 10 percent of the debt that Idee owed, Rebecca Ou-yang (歐陽翎), manager of the public relations department at Idee, said in a telephone interview yesterday.

"Although the price that Shinkong offered was lower than the reserve price, the main reason the auction failed was that less than half of the shareholders attended the board meeting," Ou-yang said.
This story has been viewed 1680 times.