Wing Hang Bank Ltd (永亨銀行), Hong Kong's fourth-largest bank by market value, won approval from China's banking regulator to buy 5 percent of First Sino Bank (華一銀行), a Shanghai-based lender owned by China and Taiwan investors.
"Yes, we have approval from the government to sell a 5 percent stake to Wing Hang Bank," Pearl Zhang, a spokeswoman at First Sino, said in Shanghai.
Wing Hang is buying the shares from First Sino's biggest shareholder, Taiwan's Lotus World Wide (
"Having Wing Hang Bank as shareholder can enable us to get more funds for lending," Zhang said. "There's a huge number of Taiwan businessmen in the mainland. There's room for us to grow."
China is Taiwan's biggest export market and the most popular destination for the latter's offshore investment.
Taiwan companies account for more than 80 percent of First Sino's businesses. The unlisted bank has only a 20 percent market share in the banking businesses for Taiwan companies operating in China because of geographical restrictions.
First Sino was jointly set up in 1997 by Lotus World Wide, an investment arm of Taiwan's Pou Chen Co (
First Sino is considered a foreign bank and subject to the same business restrictions in China as HSBC Holdings Plc and Citigroup Inc. The lender is banned from conducting local currency-denominated businesses with individuals until 2006. Overseas investors can own as much as 25 percent of a Chinese lender, with a cap of 20 percent for a single overseas investor.
First Sino, which is headquartered in Shanghai's financial center of Pudong and has two sub-branches and two representative offices in the city, has applied to set up another branch in the southern provincial capital of Guangzhou, another hub for Taiwan businesses. Wing Hang has branches in Guangzhou and the nearby city of Shenzhen, both in Guangdong province.
Profit at First Sino almost tripled last year to 18.5 million yuan (US$2.2 million) from 6.9 million yuan, according to the bank. Assets totaled 3.8 billion yuan. The bank doesn't have any bad loans, Zhang said.
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said second-quarter revenue is expected to surpass the first quarter, which rose 30 percent year-on-year to NT$118.92 billion (US$3.71 billion). Revenue this quarter is likely to grow, as US clients have front-loaded orders ahead of US President Donald Trump’s planned tariffs on Taiwanese goods, Delta chairman Ping Cheng (鄭平) said at an earnings conference in Taipei, referring to the 90-day pause in tariff implementation Trump announced on April 9. While situations in the third and fourth quarters remain unclear, “We will not halt our long-term deployments and do not plan to
‘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 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,
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
RSS