Ting Hsin International Group (頂新集團) on Wednesday gained a bigger stake in Taipei Financial Center Corp (TFCC, 台北金融大樓公司), which owns the Taipei 101 building.
The packaged food maker, registered in the Cayman Islands and owned by Taiwanese, bought 1.45 percent of TFCC shares from Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控) for about NT$277 million (US$8.47 million), or NT$13 per share, the financial service provider confirmed yesterday.
As a result of the deal, Ting Hsin, which owns Wei Chuan Foods Corp (味全食品) in Taiwan and the instant-noodle brand Master Kong (康師傅) in China, has acquired 23 percent of TFCC’s shares.
On July 7, the group bought 19.51 percent of TFCC’s shares from China Development Financial Holding Corp (中華開發) for NT$3.735 billion or NT$13 per share.
A week later, it obtained yet another 2.5 percent stake from Taipei-based China Life Insurance Co (中國人壽) for NT$481.4 million, or NT$13 per share. TFCC is expected to reshuffle its leadership lineup during its regular board meeting next month and Ting Hsin is likely to win three board of directors’ seats.
The Ministry of Finance has said it will seek to name the TFCC chairperson in line with its influence in the company, of which the government controls about 40 percent of shares.
Taishin Financial said it agreed to the transaction because the price offered by Ting Hsin was reasonable.
“We welcomed its [Ting Hsin’s] attempt to consolidate TFCC shares,” a Taishin official said by telephone on condition of anonymity. “We got TFCC shares years back to show support for a public construction project. It is time we focus our attention on financial operations.”
Ting Hsin has made clear its intent to buy more TFCC shares, calling it sound asset allocation.
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
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
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last