Chinatrust Commercial Bank (中國信託商銀), the banking arm of Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金控), yesterday said the company would fully respect the advice of the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) concerning its parent company’s NT$42 billion (US$1.3 billion) capital-raising plan via a private placement.
“We will respect them. We have to,” bank president and CEO Michael DeNoma told reporters on the sideline of a TV campaign to strengthen its family-orientated core business value.
DeNoma said the company would remain “flexible” as any capital-raising plans involve uncertainties including timing issues and market conditions, in addition to regulatory approval.
Capital
DeNoma said the company is one of the best capitalized financial institutions in Taiwan and any capital-raising plan is for future growth.
He made the comment in response to questions as to whether the company would respect the FSC’s preference if it is asked to raise funds via public offerings instead of private placement.
However, he shrugged off questions about whether the bank had looked into the background of Peter Kwok (郭炎), who plans to participate in the company’s private placement and acquire a 9.9 percent stake in Chinatrsut Financial for NT$21 billion.
Concerns
Concerns were cast that Kwok, a former committee member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, may be injecting People’s Republic of China capital, which stirred up controversy.
The Chinese-language Next magazine speculated in last week’s issue that the company was moving to withdraw the private placement proposal it had submitted to the FSC earlier and might ask shareholders for approval of another private placement deal due some time later.
But the FSC last Thursday confirmed that Chinatrust Financial hasn’t yet submitted its capital-raising proposal for approval.
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