The government yesterday asked Chang Hwa Commercial Bank (彰化銀行) to propose alternative approaches for selling the government's stake in the bank within the next two months, following the bank's announcement last Friday that it would indefinitely postpone the auction for its global depositary receipt (GDR) issuance, Minister of Finance Lin Chuan (林全) said yesterday.
Including the Chang Hwa case, there will be a total of four state-controlled banking institutions to be merged with either foreign investors or domestic financial companies, Lin told reporters at a press briefing.
"Chang Hwa's move [on the GDR issuance] has not gone smoothly, but new, alternative methods will come out soon," he said.
Chang Hwa called off the proposed GDR issuance of 1.4 billion shares after it failed to reach an agreement with potential overseas buyers on prices. The government currently controls a 23 percent stake in the bank, which is the nation's sixth-largest by assets.
Aside from directly selling the government-owned stake, alternative approaches could include raising domestic capital or putting assets up for auction if many banking institutions express interest in acquiring it, Lin said.
"As long as the process is built upon an acceptable, fair and transparent mechanism, the ministry will support it," Lin said.
Emphasizing that foreign investors are not the only favorable target for mergers, he said the future partner should be able to help lower Chang Hwa's high non-performing loan (NPL) ratio and lift its capital-adequacy ratio.
Chang Hwa posted a 3.84 percent NPL ratio at the end of March, according to data from the Financial Supervisory Commission. The lender's capital adequacy ratio, a measure of a bank's financial strength that is usually expressed as the ratio of capital to assets, was not available on the commission's Web site.
Aside from Chang Hwa, the government has been active in privatizing its 100 percent-owned Central Trust of China (中央信託局), whose business operations include banking, insurance, trade and warehousing.
"Our main priority is to protect [Central Trust] employees' rights and interests," the minister said.
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
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
RSS