Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank Co (台北富邦銀行), the banking arm of Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控), plans to issue 380 million new common shares through a private placement to strengthen its capitalization, the parent company said in its stock filing yesterday.
The filing came exactly one month after the conglomerate inked a deal with China’s First Sino Bank (華一銀行) to buy an 80 percent stake in the Chinese lender for 5.65 billion yuan (US$905 million) to facilitate expansions into China’s banking market.
The board of Fubon Bank approved plans to set the issue price at NT$18.33 per share, in line with the lender’s net worth of NT$18.323 at the end of November last year, the filing said.
That would enable Fubon Bank to increase its capital by NT$6.97 billion tomorrow when the private placement scheme is slated to go through, the filing said.
The acquisition, which is pending regulatory approval in Taiwan and China, will give Fubon Bank 14 branches and outlets in first-tier Chinese cities in the Pearl River Delta, the Yangtze River Delta and the Bohai Economic Rim.
Under the investment pact, Fubon Financial will subscribe to 29 percent of First Sino shares, while Fubon Bank will take up a 51 percent stake, allowing Shanghai Pudong Development Bank (浦東銀行) to retain the remaining 20 percent of shares.
Shares in Fubon Financial ended up1.1 percent yesterday, outpacing the TAIEX’s 0.55 percent rise, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Fubon Bank is not a listed company.
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