Taiwan postponed a planned US investor tour for a month after banks such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Merrill Lynch & Co declined to participate, fearing retaliation by China, an official said.
Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) was excluded from a US$10 billion share sale after sponsoring a similar trip, according to the Asian Wall Street Journal.
"That politically motivated decision has made the US trip more difficult to arrange without foreign brokerage houses' assistance," Ju Fu-chen (朱富春), president of the Taiwan Stock Exchange, said.
Ju said the US journey will take place in November. Goldman and Merrill "had previously expressed interest in helping arrange those trips," he said.
Goldman's spokesman in Hong Kong, Peter Rose, declined to comment. Merrill's Hong Kong spokesman couldn't be reached.
Credit Suisse earned China's ire by sponsoring a trip to Europe that included Fu, Finance Minister Yen Ching-chang (
"CSFB is being punished for stepping on China's toes," said Liu Juming, head of research at Asia Pacific Securities Investment Trust Co in Taiwan.
The dispute is also fodder for US lawmakers critical of China. Tom DeLay, majority whip of the US House of Representatives, issued a statement calling the move "international extortion."
The investment-banking unit of the Swiss-owned Credit Suisse Group, may now have to placate Beijing as China prepares for share sales the bank estimates may be worth as much as US$12.5 billion this year.
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