Shares in TC Bank Ltd (大眾銀行) fell by the daily limit yesterday following panic selling after two potential buyers walked away from attempts to buy the bank.
“The company ended its interest in buying TC Bank on Thursday after concluding a due diligence review,” Yuanta Financial Holding Co (元大金控) spokesman Chuang Yu-de (莊有德) said by telephone, confirming local media reports that the deal had fallen through.
Chuang said Yuanta Financial had not entered into price negotiations with TC Bank, but declined to elaborate further.
Yuanta Financial and Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) were wooing the Greater -Kaohsiung-based lender to strengthen their provision of services in southern Taiwan through a share swap deal.
The parties reportedly could not agree on share prices and swap ratios, local media said, without naming sources.
Shares in TC Bank, in which the US private equity firm Carlyle Group holds a 36 percent stake, slumped 6.81 percent to NT$10.95 yesterday, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
The lender said in a stock filing that Yuanta Financial and Fubon Financial had withdrawn from talks.
TC Bank chairman Chen Chien-ping (陳建平) said in March that several buyers had expressed an interest in buying Carlyle’s shares and the lender was seeking to improve its earnings ability to maximize the benefits of potential synergies.
Local media reported earlier that the deal would give TC Bank and Carlyle stakes of 20 percent and 7 percent respectively in Yuanta Financial, at a price of between NT$15 and NT$17 per share.
Recent falls in the share price of Yuanta Financial, Fubon Financial and TC Bank fueled rumors of share price manipulations and undermined trust, local media said.
Yuanta Polaris Securities Corp (元大寶來證券), the brokerage arm of Yuanta Financial, topped peers in selling TC Bank shares on May 18, according to stock exchange tallies.
Chuang said Yuanta Financial was exploring other options in a continued bid to expand its economies of scale.
Yuanta Financial chairman Yen Ching-chang (顏慶章) said earlier this month that the group intended to increase its number of bank branches from 88 to 100 and also expand into the life insurance market.
The company is reportedly weighing the possibility of buying Manulife Insurance Co (宏利人壽), the local unit of Canadian firm Manulife Financial Corp.
Fubon Financial remained tight-lipped on the TC Bank deal in line with its policy.
“We do not comment on acquisition activities until they bear fruit,” the company said in a stock exchange filing yesterday.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six