Formosa Plastics Group (FPG, 台塑集團) yesterday said it would keep its internal discussions over the buyout of the Taiwanese media outlets of Hong Kong-listed Next Media Group (壹傳媒集團) secret until the deal is signed on Saturday.
FPG, the nation’s biggest diversified industrial company, refused to say whether it would raise its share proportion in the buyout plan.
Local media yesterday said the group might have to increase its shareholding after the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) on Tuesday asked Jeffrey Koo Jr (辜仲諒), the eldest son of Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金控) founder and chairman Jeffrey Koo (辜濂松), not to hold more than a 20 percent stake in Next Media’s Taiwan operations.
On Saturday last week, FPG chairman William Wong (王文淵) said the group would hold a meeting yesterday to discuss the buyout. However, the group abruptly canceled the meeting at noon yesterday, saying it had completed its discussions on Tuesday.
Shares of the group’s four core subsidiaries extended their losses yesterday in Taipei trading from Tuesday, except for Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化), which was unchanged at NT$80.1.
Formosa Plastics Corp (FPC, 台塑) saw its shares lose 3.18 percent to NT$70, Nan Ya Plastics Corp (南亞塑膠), dropped 1.43 percent to end at NT$48.40, while Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corp (台灣化纖) closed down 1.95 percent at NT$60.3.
In Hong Kong, Next Media unexpectedly suspended trading of its shares at 10:08am, after they fell 12.987 percent to HK$1.34. Its shares fell 2.6 percent on Tuesday after it warned on Monday of “a substantial loss” for the first half of the year because of write-offs at its multimedia division in Taiwan.
Last month, Koo Jr inked a memorandum of understanding with Hong Kong mogul Jimmy Lai (黎智英) to buy Next Media’s Taiwan operations, including the Apple Daily, Next Magazine and Next TV (壹電視) for NT$17.5 billion (US$600.86 million).
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
Intel Corp yesterday reinforced its determination to strengthen its partnerships with Taiwan’s ecosystem partners including original-electronic-manufacturing (OEM) companies such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電). “Tonight marks a new beginning. We renew our new partnership with Taiwan ecosystem,” Intel new chief executive officer Tan Lip-bu (陳立武) said at a dinner with representatives from the company’s local partners, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the US chip giant’s presence in Taiwan. Tan took the reins at Intel six weeks ago aiming to reform the chipmaker and revive its past glory. This is the first time Tan
RSS