FSC sets IFRS timetable
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday announced the timetable for public companies to adopt the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), beginning in 2013.
Some 115 countries have adopted or planned to adopt the standards, which usually require a three-year preparatory and transitional period, a commission official said yesterday.
Local companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange or GRETAI Securities Market, as well as financial institutions that are under the commission’s supervisory except grassroot credit cooperatives, credit card firms and insurance agents, must adopt the new standards no later than 2013, the commission said.
In the second phase, non-listed companies, as well as credit cooperatives, credit card companies and insurance agents, will be required to adopt the standards no later than 2015, the commission said.
Taishin Financial to cut capital
Taishin Financial Holding Co’s (台新金控) board yesterday approved a proposal to reduce the firm’s capital by NT$4.73 billion (US$143.5 million), or 6.7 percent, to NT$65.15 billion, the firm said.
Afterwards, Taishin Financial will have NT$53.24 billion in common shares and NT$11.91 billion in preferred shares, it said.
The capital reduction plan, however, must still be approved at the company’s annual shareholder meeting next month.
MIC subsidiary to liquidate
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s second-largest maker of custom chips, said its 90 percent owned display unit plans to liquidate after consecutive annual losses, the Hsinchu-based chipmaker said in an exchange filing yesterday.
United Microdisplay Optronics Corp (聯誠光電) was founded in 2002 with a capital of NT$297 million, the Ministry of Economics Affairs’ Web site shows.
Bank ratings unaffected
Taiwan Ratings Corp (中華信評), a local arm of Standard & Poor’s Ratings Service, said yesterday that the repurchase of problematic PEM Group products by several local banks would have a limited impact on their credit profiles.
Taiwan Ratings said most of the banks would repurchase the positions from investors at par value via cash or cash-equivalent instruments.
The banks are Hua Nan Bank (華南銀行), Bank SinoPac (永豐銀行), Entie Commercial Bank (安泰銀行), Standard Chartered Bank (Taiwan) Ltd, Taichung Commercial Bank (台中銀行) and Cosmos Bank (萬泰銀行).
“Taiwan Ratings considers the potential losses resulting from this event as a one-off event that is absorbable by respective banks’ risk profiles under the assumption of 40 percent recovery ratio on the notes,” it said.
ECCT urges TEM pact
The European Chamber of Commerce Taipei (ECCT) yesterday urged the government to sign a Trade Enhancement Measures (TEM) pact with the EU, saying such an agreement would ensure Taiwanese firms stay competitive.
Speaking at the annual European Day, ECCT chairman Philippe Pellegrin lauded Taiwan’s cross-strait rapprochement as beneficial to foreign investors, but said as since an EU-South Korea free-trade agreement is expected soon, Taiwanese companies are backing a TEM out of concern of increased South Korean competition.
NT dollar weakens
The New Taiwan dollar declined against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, declining NT$0.065 to close at NT$32.955. A total of US$766 million changed hands during the day’s trading.
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