Three banks have expressed a strong interest in purchasing the debt-ridden Bowa Bank (寶華銀行), said Howard Wang (王南華), president of Central Deposit Insurance Corp (中央存保), which took over Bowa last August.
However, Wang said a report in the Chinese-language Economic Daily that the Development Bank of Singapore (DBS) is among the three bidders for Bowa was "pure speculation."
The Economic Daily said that a local financial holding firm and a local bank were also potential bidders at the Bowa auction. He also declined to comment on this.
Wang said three qualified banks have expressed a strong intention to buy Bowa's banking operations, with the result of the auction to be announced on Jan. 31.
The three banks are looking to purchase only the "good" part of Bowa, which does not include the non-performing loans, Wang said.
He said Bowa's non-performing loans (NPL) have attracted eight bidders. The bank has a total of NT$24 billion (US$742 million) worth of NPLs, of which NT$4 billion are not warranted.
Bowa owns 39 branches in Taiwan and owns 42 licenses for its banking operations, CDIC data showed.
Bowa Bank confirmed that representatives from several unidentified parties have conducted due-diligence inspections with the cooperation of Bowa employees.
CDIC took over five banks that were heavily in debt last year; the Enterprise Bank of Hualien (花蓮企銀), Taitung Business Bank (台東企銀), China United Trust and Investment Corp (中聯信託), The Chinese Bank (中華銀行) and Bowa Commercial Bank. Taitung Business Bank was sold to ABN-AMRO, while HSBC purchased the Chinese Bank. Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) took the debt-ridden China United Trust and Investment Crop under its wing in October.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last