Papermaking conglomerate YFY Inc (永豐餘控股) yesterday said that it is to extend the maturity period of a five-year convertible bond issued by Giant Crystal Universal Development Inc, a subsidiary of Sun Power Development and Construction Co (三寶建設).
Sun Power was unable to repay the debt on Tuesday — the maturity date of the US$8.5 million corporate bonds — and has requested to extend the repayment period, YFY spokesman Yin Kuo-tang (殷國堂) told a news conference in Taipei yesterday.
Yin said that the company’s management is to hold negotiations with its counterpart at Sun Power and plans to submit a proposal for extension of the debt repayment to YFY’s board before July 3.
The company has requested Sun Power repay US$12.29 million of the convertible bond before Sept. 20, including extra interest based on a 10 percent rate charged during the three-month period from this month through September, Yin said.
Ho Shou-chuan (何壽川), former chairman of SinoPac Financial Holdings Co (永豐金控) and a key member of YFY’s founding Ho family, was on Sunday ordered detained by the Taipei District Court for alleged illegal loans in violation of the Securities and Exchange Act (證券交易法).
He was accused of being involved in questionable loans of more than NT$5 billion (US$164.09 million) provided by the company through shell companies to take control of a commercial building in Shanghai in 2009.
The loans extended to Sun Power were transferred between paper companies owned by Sun Power and SinoPac Financial without sufficient collateral as well as a lack of proper documentation and authorization, which has raised questions over the group’s regulatory compliance and the reliability of its internal audit procedures, the Financial Supervisory Commission said.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
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