Shares receive boost
Taiwanese shares closed up 1.49 percent yesterday in expanding trade following Wall Street’s overnight gains, dealers said.
The TAIEX index rose 99.19 points to 6,738.60 on turnover of NT$139.56 billion (US$4.23 billion).
Gainers led losers 1,974 to 518, with 111 stocks unchanged.
The market was also boosted by buying of tech shares on Intel’s optimistic earnings outlook, said Andrew Teng (鄧安瀾), an assistant vice president at Taiwan International Securities Corp (金鼎證券).
Shin Kong venture in new deal
Beijing-based Shin Kong & HNA Life Insurance Co (新光海航人壽保險公司), a joint venture between Taipei-based Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽) and Hainan Airlines (海航集團), teamed up on Wednesday with Shanghai Pudong Development Bank’s (上海浦東發展銀行) Beijing branch to cooperate in bancassurance businesses.
Executives from both parties signed a collaboration agreement in Beijing, the insurer’s press statement said.
Through the collaboration, the insurer’s chairman, Wen Anmin (聞安民), promised to take advantage of its parent life insurer’s expertise and experience in bancassurance to enhance product innovation and insurance services for policyholders in China.
Chinatrust eyeing Nan Shan
Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金控) is mulling the possibility of teaming up with a private equity fund to acquire Nan Shan Life Insurance Co (南山人壽), chairman Jeffrey Koo (辜濂松) said yesterday.
Nan Shan is 97.5 percent owned by the financially troubled American International Group Inc (AIG).
“We are still studying the feasibility [of partnering with a private equity fund],” Koo told reporters on the sidelines of a business group gathering.
Chinatrust Financial is among several local and foreign financial companies, including Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) and Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), that have entered the second round of the bid for Nan Shan to conduct due checks.
THSRC refinancing loans
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC, 台灣高鐵), unprofitable in its two years of operations, is seeking to borrow as much as NT$390 billion (US$11.8 billion) to refinance loans after borrowing costs plunged.
Bank of Taiwan (臺灣銀行) is leading a group of lenders that will provide the new debt, which would replace NT$373.8 billion in loans with interest as high as 8 percent, Ted Chia (賈先德), a vice president of the Taipei-based rail company, said yesterday.
The government would guarantee as much as NT$308.3 billion in new loans, Hu Hsiang-ling (胡湘麟), deputy director-general of the Bureau of High Speed Rail, said yesterday.
More PRC airlines apply
Two more Chinese carriers — Xiamen Airlines (廈門航空) and Hainan Airlines (海南航空) — have applied to open branch offices in Taiwan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Tuesday.
This brings to three the number of Chinese companies seeking to invest in Taiwan in the wake of the ministry’s June 30 announcement allowing Chinese investment in specific categories.
On July 3, Guangzhou-based China Southern Airlines (中國南方航空) submitted a similar application to the ministry, becoming the first Chinese company to apply to invest in Taiwan.
NT dollar gains more ground
The New Taiwan dollar rose against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, rising NT$0.115 to close at NT$32.975. Turnover was US$868 million.
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