Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽) yesterday bought debt-ridden Prince Motors Group’s (太子汽車) New Taipei City (新北市) plant through an auction for NT$4.39 billion (US$148.31 million), which was 7.7 percent higher than the floor price, auction organizer Taiwan Financial Asset Service Corp (台灣金服) said.
The Tucheng-based (土城) plant, which occupies land totaling 12,000 ping (396,000m2) near the planned Dingpu (頂埔) MRT station, translates into NT$365,000 per ping and marks the largest real-estate investment by a domestic life insurer this year, said Michael Wang (王維宏), an account manager at Sinyi Realty Inc’s (信義房屋) asset department.
The insurance company is seeking to increase real-estate investments, but has made slow progress amid an increasingly scarce supply, he said.
Cathay Life issued a statement yesterday evening saying it would not turn the newly acquired property into a residential complex, but would use it as a storage facility.
The 37-year-old plant failed to draw any bidders in an auction last month because of its over-valued asking price of NT$5.45 billion, or NT$450,000 per ping for the land alone, said Jessica Hsu (徐佳馨), head researcher at H&B Realty (住商不動產), Taiwan’s largest real-estate broker by number of franchises.
Going rates for industrial land plots average between NT$200,000 and NT$250,000 per ping in the area, according to H&B estimates.
Cathay Life was the only participant in yesterday’s auction and the successful sale could help ease Prince Motors’ debts to local lenders, notably Cosmos Bank (萬泰銀行).
Prince Motors chairman Hsu Sheng-fa (許勝發) is also the founder and former chairman of Cosmos Bank, but he relinquished control after selling a combined 80 percent stake in 2007. Cosmos Bank, which has about NT$5.6 billion in secured lending to the car vendor, was the only bank among 37 domestic peers with a loan ratio above the 2 percent level as of last month, and is looking to recover partial losses through collateral auctions.
Merida Industry Co (美利達) has seen signs of recovery in the US and European markets this year, as customers are gradually depleting their inventories, the bicycle maker told shareholders yesterday. Given robust growth in new orders at its Taiwanese factory, coupled with its subsidiaries’ improving performance, Merida said it remains confident about the bicycle market’s prospects and expects steady growth in its core business this year. CAUTION ON CHINA However, the company must handle the Chinese market with great caution, as sales of road bikes there have declined significantly, affecting its revenue and profitability, Merida said in a statement, adding that it would
Greek tourism student Katerina quit within a month of starting work at a five-star hotel in Halkidiki, one of the country’s top destinations, because she said conditions were so dire. Beyond the bad pay, the 22-year-old said that her working and living conditions were “miserable and unacceptable.” Millions holiday in Greece every year, but its vital tourism industry is finding it harder and harder to recruit Greeks to look after them. “I was asked to work in any department of the hotel where there was a need, from service to cleaning,” said Katerina, a tourism and marketing student, who would
i Gasoline and diesel prices at fuel stations are this week to rise NT$0.1 per liter, as tensions in the Middle East pushed crude oil prices higher last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices last week rose for the third consecutive week due to an escalating conflict between Israel and Iran, as the market is concerned that the situation in the Middle East might affect crude oil supply, CPC and Formosa said in separate statements. Front-month Brent crude oil futures — the international oil benchmark — rose 3.75 percent to settle at US$77.01
RISING: Strong exports, and life insurance companies’ efforts to manage currency risks indicates the NT dollar would eventually pass the 29 level, an expert said The New Taiwan dollar yesterday rallied to its strongest in three years amid inflows to the nation’s stock market and broad-based weakness in the US dollar. Exporter sales of the US currency and a repatriation of funds from local asset managers also played a role, said two traders, who asked not to be identified as they were not authorized to speak publicly. State-owned banks were seen buying the greenback yesterday, but only at a moderate scale, the traders said. The local currency gained 0.77 percent, outperforming almost all of its Asian peers, to close at NT$29.165 per US dollar in Taipei trading yesterday. The