Chang Hwa Commercial Bank’s (彰化銀行) executive directors yesterday approved plans to merge with Taishin International Bank (台新銀行), despite protests by government representatives, as Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控) made another move to acquire the state-run lender.
Taishin Financial and the Ministry of Finance control 22.5 and 20 percent respectively of Chang Hwa Bank’s shares. The directors passed the merger proposal in a 2:1 vote and plan to call a board meeting later to confirm the matter.
The action came one week after Taishin Financial shareholders authorized company chairman Thomas Wu (吳東亮) to take legal steps, if necessary, to push for the merger of the two banks.
Taishin Financial has majority control of Chang Hwa Bank’s boardroom and executive directors’ seats.
The finance ministry issued a statement later in the day condemning the vote, calling it both illegal and inappropriate. It also criticized Taishin Financial’s move to approve a feasibility study on the merger.
“It is improper for executive directors to discuss merger proposals as they have significant bearing on the company’s share price and the overall financial market,” the ministry said in a statement.
Feasibility studies on mergers involve the vital interests of a company and should be initiated by the management team, not by executive board directors, it added.
Government representatives on the board will continue to voice their opposition to the merger and the feasibility study after the report is sent to the board for further discussion, the ministry said.
The ministry said it has also sent official notices to the Financial Supervisory Commission, Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp and Securities and Futures Investors Protection Center asking them to monitor Taishin Financial to see if it uses the study to influence its stock price.
Taishin Financial shares closed up 1.54 percent at NT$13.20 yesterday, underperforming the TAIEX, which rose 2.26 percent.
Sweeping policy changes under US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr are having a chilling effect on vaccine makers as anti-vaccine rhetoric has turned into concrete changes in inoculation schedules and recommendations, investors and executives said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has in the past year upended vaccine recommendations, with the country last month ending its longstanding guidance that all children receive inoculations against flu, hepatitis A and other diseases. The unprecedented changes have led to diminished vaccine usage, hurt the investment case for some biotechs, and created a drag that would likely dent revenues and
Global semiconductor stocks advanced yesterday, as comments by Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) at Davos, Switzerland, helped reinforce investor enthusiasm for artificial intelligence (AI). Samsung Electronics Co gained as much as 5 percent to an all-time high, helping drive South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI above 5,000 for the first time. That came after the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose more than 3 percent to a fresh record on Wednesday, with a boost from Nvidia. The gains came amid broad risk-on trade after US President Donald Trump withdrew his threat of tariffs on some European nations over backing for Greenland. Huang further
Macronix International Co (旺宏), the world’s biggest NOR flash memory supplier, yesterday said it would spend NT$22 billion (US$699.1 million) on capacity expansion this year to increase its production of mid-to-low-density memory chips as the world’s major memorychip suppliers are phasing out the market. The company said its planned capital expenditures are about 11 times higher than the NT$1.8 billion it spent on new facilities and equipment last year. A majority of this year’s outlay would be allocated to step up capacity of multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash memory chips, which are used in embedded multimedia cards (eMMC), a managed
CULPRITS: Factors that affected the slip included falling global crude oil prices, wait-and-see consumer attitudes due to US tariffs and a different Lunar New Year holiday schedule Taiwan’s retail sales ended a nine-year growth streak last year, slipping 0.2 percent from a year earlier as uncertainty over US tariff policies affected demand for durable goods, data released on Friday by the Ministry of Economic Affairs showed. Last year’s retail sales totaled NT$4.84 trillion (US$153.27 billion), down about NT$9.5 billion, or 0.2 percent, from 2024. Despite the decline, the figure was still the second-highest annual sales total on record. Ministry statistics department deputy head Chen Yu-fang (陳玉芳) said sales of cars, motorcycles and related products, which accounted for 17.4 percent of total retail rales last year, fell NT$68.1 billion, or
RSS