Shares close higher
Taiwanese shares closed 0.75 percent higher yesterday on Wall Street gains overnight, dealers said.
The TAIEX index rose 56.79 points to 7,593.49 on turnover of NT$96.35 billion (US$2.98 billion).
Gainers outnumbered losers 1,140 to 1,070, while 255 stocks remained unchanged.
The market opened high, apparently after sentiment was boosted by a rally on Wall Street that lifted The Dow Jones index 2.03 percent to 10,226.94 — the highest close since Oct. 3 last year, analysts said.
“But investors were reluctant to push the prices higher despite a number of positive news reports,” said Alex Huang (黃國偉) of Mega International Investment Services (兆豐國際投顧).
Firm raises funds for AIG unit
China Strategic Holdings Ltd (中策集團) has raised as much as NT$24 billion from Taiwanese banks to help buy American International Group Inc’s life insurance unit in Taiwan with Primus Financial Holdings Ltd.
Primus Nan-Shan Holding Co, 80 percent owned by China Strategic and 20 percent by Primus Financial, plans to use US$640 million from the debt facility to pay for Nan Shan Life Insurance Co (南山人壽), China Strategic said in a statement yesterday. Primus Nan-Shan last month agreed to pay AIG US$2.15 billion for the Taiwanese unit.
Hong Kong-based China Strategic, which also makes batteries and related products, will get HK$7.6 billion (US$980 million) in net proceeds to fund the purchase from selling convertible notes, and US$231 million from a new share sale. Primus Financial will pay US$301 million, the statement said.
Taiwan hopes for BIA with US
Taiwan hopes to sign a bilateral investment agreement (BIA) with the US, which could serve as a precursor to a free-trade agreement between the two countries, an official said yesterday.
“The BIA proposal will be one of the major topics to be discussed once our two countries resume the long-stalled talks under the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement [TIFA],” a Ministry of Economic Affairs official said on condition of anonymity.
In addition to the BIA, other topics of great concern to Taiwan include cooperation on green energy research, e-commerce and environmental protection, the official said.
Topics that the US wants to tackle include the pricing formula for medications, relaxing restrictions on imports of US agricultural products, Taiwan’s rice import quota and on-campus protection of intellectual property rights, the official said.
Taiwan Life sells plot of land
Taiwan Life Insurance Co (台灣人壽) is expected to book a gain of NT$590 million after it sold a 2,755.17 ping (0.9 hectare) plot of land in Taichung City to Fubon Land Development Co (富邦建設) for NT$2.12 billion.
The selling price was NT$192 million higher than the floor price of NT$1.928 billion, representing a premium of around 10 percent, the company said in a statement on its Web site.
Taiwan Life said it bought the land on Wuchuan W Road near the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts in 2006 for NT$1.5 billion from a group of investors including Bank of Taiwan (臺灣銀行), the statement said.
Real estate agent DTZ Debenham Tie Leung (戴德梁行) helped close the deal.
NT dollar gains ground
The New Taiwan dollar gained ground against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, rising NT$0.016 to close at NT$32.349. Turnover was US$889 million.
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