China Development Financial Holding Corp (
"If negotiations go smoothly, the two companies may reach a merger agreement by the end of the year," said Grace Fang (
Fang added that the deal is pending further discussions between both companies' top management including China Development chairman Liu Tai-ying (劉泰英), who is slated to be released from detention on June 9.
Before his detention, Liu had led the merger plan, which Fang said would be a win-win situation and a complementary arrangement for both financial-service companies.
If merged into China Development, SinoPac would help streng--then the parent company's commercial and consumer banking businesses and increase the company's scale of economy, she said.
Since plans to merge with SinoPac are not on the agenda for the upcoming China Development shareholders' meeting scheduled for June 27, any merger would not take place until next year, Fang added.
The company's acting chairwoman, Diana Chen (
Fang denied media speculation that a share-swap ratio of one SinoPac share for between 1.2 and 1.3 shares of China Development has been agreed upon.
She added that the swap ratio and possible top management reshuffle are still under discussion.
But a stock analyst yesterday said that China Development may have to pay higher premium in order to acquire SinoPac.
"One share of SinoPac for 1.3 shares of China Development sounds reasonable while 1.2 is too low," said William Fong (方偉昌), an analyst at Primasia Securities Co.
The analyst said that SinoPac's earnings per share (EPS) may reach over NT$1 this year while China Development's EPS may hover around NT$0.9 due to low returns from this year's investment projects.
Fong was nevertheless positive yesterday about the merger plan, since China Development would be able to better compete with 12 other financial holding companies.
The merger would allow it to secure its niche market in investment banking and securities businesses while beefing up its competitiveness on consumer banking with SinoPac's affiliation.
With NT$107.5 billion in capital, China Development has "established a strong wholesale banking position, and now we want to strengthen our retail banking," according to its vice president, Yang Tze-kaing (
China Development is seeking a bank with about 50 branches and consumer and corporate lending businesses, he said.
With 44 branches and capital of NT$37.5 billion, SinoPac has the second-highest percentage of overseas shareholders among domestic lenders.
China Development's subsidiaries include China Development Industrial Bank (中華開發銀行), First Taiwan Securities Inc (菁英證券) and Grand Cathay Securities (大華證券). SinoPac's subsidiaries include Bank Sinopac (建華銀行) and SinoPac Securities Corp (建華證券) and is currently bidding for Grand Commercial Bank (萬通銀行), a lender controlled by the nation's largest food company, Uni-President Group (統一集團).
Shares of China Development yesterday fell NT$0.50, or 3.8 percent, to NT$12.60 while shares of SinoPac fell NT$0.3, or 2.3 percent, to NT$12.70.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
RSS