Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) shares rallied 4.66 percent yesterday after the nation’s largest financial services provider said its board had agreed to form a joint venture in Hong Kong with Conning Holdings Corp of the US to tap opportunities in institutional asset management services in the Asia-Pacific region.
Cathay Financial shares closed at NT$43.8 yesterday, ending a four-day losing streak. Local rival Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) shares rose 2.36 percent to NT$43.45.
The new asset management company would have a paid-in capital of US$6 million, with Cathay Financial and Conning Holdings each holding a 50 percent stake in the venture, the Taipei-based financial services provider said in a stock exchange filing on Tuesday.
The venture would target markets including Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan and Vietnam, while developing investment products that can be distributed globally, the firm said.
Conning Holdings, headquartered in Hartford, Connecticut, is one of the largest global asset managers focused on the insurance industry. It currently manages assets for Cathay Financial’s life insurance unit, Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽).
Apart from the plan to set up the joint venture, Cathay Financial’s board also agreed to purchase 100,695 shares in Conning Holdings at US$186.84 a share, US$18.81 million in total, which would give it a 9.9 percent stake in the global asset manager, according to a separate exchange filing on Tuesday.
While the deal only gives Cathay Financial a minority stake in Conning Holdings, it is expected to help expand the company’s operational scope and expand its overseas asset management business and make it more competitive, the filing said.
“We are very excited about our strategic partnership with Conning,” Cathay Financial president Lee Chang-ken (李長庚) said in a statement. “This partnership, including the establishment of a Hong Kong joint venture and an investment in Conning, is an important strategic transaction for Cathay Financial Holdings as we look to further strengthen our asset management capabilities and expand our presence in the asset management industry in the Asia-Pacific region.”
Cathay Financial said it would apply with the Financial Supervisory Commission for permission to launch the Hong Kong asset management venture and to purchase the Conning Holdings shares. It expects to close the deal in the first quarter of next year.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure