BANKING
CTBC to buy Taiwan Life
CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控) yesterday said a majority of its shareholders had approved the company’s plans to acquire Taiwan Life Insurance Co (台灣人壽). Under the terms of the deal, CTBC Financial would make Taiwan Life a wholly-owned entity through a share swap scheme by trading each Taiwan Life share for 1.44 shares in CTBC Financial. Shares of CTBC closed at NT$19.7 yesterday on the local bourse, meaning that the Taiwan Life deal could cost the company NT$25.74 billion (US$858.5 million). Shareholders yesterday also agreed to a proposal for the company’s banking subsidiary, CTBC Bank (中信銀行), to buy a 98.16 percent stake in Japan’s Tokyo Star Bank for ¥52 billion (US$497.74 million), CTBC Financial said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Property
Fair value gets go-ahead
The Financial Supervisory Commission on Thursday gave the go-ahead for the use of fair value by domestic life insurers in appraising their property investments, starting next year. Taiwanese life insurers that opt for mark-to-market accounting rules are subject to higher reserve requirements and must hire two different property institutes to carry out the reappraisal, the commission said in a statement. The fair-value principle may not be used on undeveloped plots of land unless the insurers acquire construction permits for their development, the commission said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last