General Electric Co is among a group of companies that may invest a combined NT$27.3 billion (US$831.4 million) in Cosmos Bank Taiwan (
"Based on what we have seen, the progress has been pretty positive," Chang said in a phone interview from Basel, Switzerland. "They plan to finish the recapitalization by September as originally scheduled, but we hope they will get it done sooner."
Chang declined to identify the other investors.
Taipei-based Cosmos, 10 percent owned by GE's consumer lending unit, was among Taiwanese credit card and cash card issuers hurt by a surge in loan defaults in the past two years. It posted a pretax loss of NT$2.38 billion in the four months ended April 30, according to the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC).
"The capital injection will certainly help Cosmos stay afloat," said Steven Chen (陳智誠), an analyst at Taiwan Ratings Corp (中華信評). "Essentially, how this will help turn around Cosmos' operations will depend on GE's strategy."
Cosmos' capital adequacy fell to 7.51 percent on March 31 from 9.36 percent three months earlier, below the banking industry's 10.1 percent average, FSC data shows.
The company in April said the planned fundraising will probably boost its capital adequacy ratio to at least 12 percent. In January last year, GE Consumer Finance said it would pay US$86 million for 10 percent of Cosmos, and may raise the holding to 24.9 percent later through the purchase of convertible bonds.
The government yesterday approved applications by Alphabet Inc’s Google to invest NT$27.08 billion (US$859.98 million) in Taiwan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. The Department of Investment Review approved two investments proposed by Google, with much of the funds to be used for data processing and electronic information supply services, as well as inventory procurement businesses in the semiconductor field, the ministry said. It marks the second consecutive year that Google has applied to increase its investment in Taiwan. Google plans to infuse NT$25.34 billion into Charter Investments Ltd (特許投資顧問) through its Singapore-based subsidiary Fructan Holdings Singapore Pte Ltd, and
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