The debt-ridden Kaohsiung Business Bank (
"Two local financial holding companies, which have shown interest in acquiring the bank, have undertaken due diligence checks into its assets and liabilities," said Johnson Chen (
At a seminar to discuss the nation's progress on financial reforms yesterday, Chen told reporters that he estimates that the failed bank may cost the government's Financial Restructuring Fund (金融重建基金) between NT$17 billion and NT$20 billion in cash to bail it out.
Citing a confidentiality agreement, Chen, however, refused to reveal the names of the two bidders, adding that there may be more potential buyers before the application deadline on Nov. 28.
According to Chen, the lender, which currently operates 44 branches nationwide, has less than NT$100 billion in its savings accounts and about NT$40 billion in other assets after writing off NT$21.7 billion of impaired assets in June.
As a regional bank, the Kaohsiung Business Bank is licensed to operate more than 60 local branches, which Chen said will be a selling point to local financial holding companies in light of their plans to expand.
No foreign investors, which are required to have past experience in running banks, indicated by a minimum 25 percent stake in a bank, have approached the corporation to apply to enter the bidding, Chen added.
In his address to the 18th World Chinese Banking Amity Conference yesterday morning, Minister of Finance Lin Chuan (
"The fund's allocation is the first step to facilitating an exit system that is empowered to shut down failing banks and to safeguard financial order and the banking sector's health," Lin told the conference yesterday.
As a guest speaker at the same conference, Premier Yu Shyi-kun blamed the opposition alliance for boycotting review of the fund's bill.
Yu accused the opposition parties of delaying the nation's progress in financial reforms while trumpeting the government's achievement in writing off a total of NT$336.7 billion in bad loans within the past year and nine months.
In response, Legislative Speaker and KMT Vice Chairman Wang Jin-pyng (
Wang said that PFP Chairman James Soong (
During the last legislative session, the opposition alliance shelved the bill for the fund, prohibiting the fund from covering failed banks' non-depository liabilities by cutting the NT$680 billion fund proposed by the finance ministry by half.
Lin, however, insisted that the fund should cover failed banks' non-depository liabilities for fear of triggering a systemic crisis in the banking sector.
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
Intel Corp yesterday reinforced its determination to strengthen its partnerships with Taiwan’s ecosystem partners including original-electronic-manufacturing (OEM) companies such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電). “Tonight marks a new beginning. We renew our new partnership with Taiwan ecosystem,” Intel new chief executive officer Tan Lip-bu (陳立武) said at a dinner with representatives from the company’s local partners, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the US chip giant’s presence in Taiwan. Tan took the reins at Intel six weeks ago aiming to reform the chipmaker and revive its past glory. This is the first time Tan
CUSTOMERS’ BURDEN: TSMC already has operations in the US and is a foundry, so any tariff increase would mostly affect US customers, not the company, the minister said Taiwanese manufacturers are “not afraid” of US tariffs, but are concerned about being affected more heavily than regional economic competitors Japan and South Korea, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said. “Taiwan has many advantages that other countries do not have, the most notable of which is its semiconductor ecosystem,” Kuo said. The US “must rely on Taiwan” to boost its microchip manufacturing capacities, Kuo said in an interview ahead of his one-year anniversary in office tomorrow. Taiwan has submitted a position paper under Section 232 of the US Trade Expansion Act to explain the “complementary relationship” between Taiwan and the US
RSS