The Bank of Kaohsiung (高雄銀行) said its main shareholder, the Kaohsiung city government, would sell a 23 percent stake in the commercial lender, which also acts as the municipal treasury for the southern Taiwan city.
The port city plans to sell 100 million Bank of Kaohsiung shares through auction or private placement, bank spokeswoman Hsu Tsui-mei said. That values the stock offering at NT$1.4 billion (US$40 million), based on the stock's closing share price of NT$14 a share yesterday.
"The stake sale plan is part of the city's bid to remove government influence [from the bank] and to give it full autonomy," Hsu said.
Kaohsiung City owns a 48.9 percent controlling stake in the municipal bank and its representatives on the board serve in key management posts such as chairman. The sale plan comes as Taiwan's government, which wants to minimize political influence in business, pushes banks to act on a more commercial basis.
Taiwan is pushing banks to combine into fewer and stronger institutions as part of an industry clean-up, which this month saw it seize control of 36 troubled credit cooperatives. In June, parliament passed legislation allowing the creation of holding companies that can acquire lenders, securities companies, insurers and money managers.
First Commercial Bank (第一銀行) said in January it may take over southern rivals like Bank of Kaohsiung in response to the government call for industry consolidation and to balance its business geographically.
First Commercial Bank Chairman Jerome Chen (陳建隆) served as Bank of Kaohsiung chairman until the Ministry of Finance last October hired him to run First Commercial. His hiring was part of a management reshuffle at state-controlled Taiwanese companies as President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) sought to make good on policy pledges, including bank reform, made during his campaign.
President Chen's Democratic Progressive Party swept to power 15 months ago, unseating the Nationalist Party that was criticized for alleged corruption and slack governance. Many analysts say the Nationalists were too closely allied to the financial sector to be able to reform it during their 50 years in power.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)