CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控) yesterday said it is acquiring Taiwan Life Insurance Co (台灣人壽保險) at a premium of nearly 10 percent, which may help boost its life insurance unit to the sixth-largest in the nation.
“CTBC is to issue new shares to acquire a 100 percent stake in Taiwan Life, with the issuance amount to account for about 8.4 percent of the company’s original paid-in capital,” CTBC senior vice president Rachael Kao (高麗雪) told a news conference.
The two firms have agreed to a deal that would allow each Taiwan Life common share to be exchanged for 1.44 CTBC common shares, and one Taiwan Life preferred stock for each CTBC preferred stock.
Photo: CNA
With CTBC shares closing at NT$23.2 yesterday, the transaction may cost the company NT$32.35 billion (US$1.05 billion), offering a premium of 9.9 percent, the company said in a statement.
The two companies still have to win approval of the deal from their shareholders at an annual meeting on June 29 as well as from the Financial Supervisory Commission.
They said they expect to close the deal in October and hope to complete the integration at the end of this year.
CTBC would see total assets of its life insurance business, CTBC Life Insurance Co Ltd (中國信託人壽), reach nearly NT$900 billion after the acquisition, making it the sixth-largest in the nation. The market share of its first-year premiums would also increase to 10.1 percent, the fourth-largest in Taiwan.
This is the second time CTBC has offered to acquire Taiwan Life. Its offer last year was rejected by Taiwan Life shareholders, including the biggest shareholder, Long Bon International Co (龍邦國際).
CTBC said the price of the latest deal is reasonable, as Taiwan Life has seen its total assets increase to NT$508.3 billion, but it did not say if Taiwan Life’s major shareholders would acquire a seat in the financial holding firm’s board of directors.
Taiwan Life policyholders’ rights and interests will be well protected, and the life insurer’s employees will be retained with the same salary for at least two years, the two companies said.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure