The Financial Supervisory Commission yesterday approved Yuanta Financial Holding Co’s (元大金控) plans to acquire Ta Chong Bank Ltd (大眾銀行) through a share swap, which is set to be completed in April or May.
However, it will to take up to two years for Ta Chong Bank to be brought fully into the fold of Yuanta Commercial Bank (元大銀行), Yuanta Financial’s banking arm, the commission said.
The two banks would have a total of 155 branches nationwide, while their collective share of cash deposits and lending will rise from 1.93 percent to 2.93 percent and 1.91 percent to 2.99 percent respectively, the commission said.
Yuanta Commercial Bank’s NT$800 billion (US$23.8 billion) in assets would be boosted by NT$450 billion from Ta Chong Bank to place it 15th among their peers, the commission said.
“Securities brokerage-focused Yuanta Financial will benefit from synergistic gains of the merger, as its banking businesses will be markedly strengthened,” Banking Bureau Director-General Austin Chan (詹庭禎) told a news conference in Taipei.
Yuanta Commercial Bank, which specializes in corporate lending in northern Taiwan, would benefit from the acquisition of Ta Chong, which focuses on consumer lending and the southern Taiwan market, Chan said.
He also commended the two banks’ efforts to resolve a labor dispute raised by Ta Chong’s workers’ union, thereby averting a strike planned for just before the Lunar New Year holidays.
The deal is the second consolidation to be completed under the leadership of commission Chairman William Tseng (曾銘宗), who is leaving the post to take up his Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator-at-large seat on Monday.
The other merger on Tseng’s watch was China Development Financial Holding Corp’s (中華開發金控) acquisition of Cosmos Bank (萬泰銀行) in 2014.
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