Formosa Plastics Group (FPG, 台塑集團) has denied that its chairman William Wong (王文淵) and vice chairwoman Susan Wang (王瑞華) have decided to join a consortium that is buying the Taiwanese media outlets of Hong Kong-listed Next Media Group (壹傳媒集團).
The Taiwanese conglomerate issued a statement yesterday rebutting a report by the Chinese-language United Daily News that Wong, with the support of the vice chairwoman, has decided to acquire the Next Media units with other partners.
The statement said the investment plan has been under evaluation since Monday, but no final decision has been made, adding that if a decision is reached it would be made public.
The newspaper report cited sources close to Wong as saying that the group’s four major subsidiaries — Formosa Plastics Corp (台塑), Nan Ya Plastics Corp (南亞塑膠), Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) and Formosa Chemicals and Fibre Corp (台灣化纖) — would jointly fund the acquisition.
However, the group would not get involved in the operations of the media group, the report added.
Formosa Plastics shares fell 0.88 percent this week from last week to close at NT$79.3 yesterday in Taipei trading, while Nan Ya Plastics closed up 0.18 percent at NT$55.7. Formosa Chemicals declined 1.07 percent this week to NT$74.2, while Formosa Petrochemical fell 1.05 percent to NT$85, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
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