An amusement company linked to CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金) is to purchase the Brother Elephants (兄弟象) baseball team, while CTBC is to act as sponsor, as regulations bar financial service providers from investing in non-financial firms.
“CTBC Financial will not intervene in the management of the Brother Elephants, but will let an amusement company take charge of the responsibility,” Financial Supervisory Commission Chairman William Tseng (曾銘宗) told the legislature’s Finance Committee yesterday.
Tseng made the statement based on a CTBC Financial briefing to clarify media speculations that the nation’s third-largest financial service provider by assets had agreed to acquire the baseball club for NT$400 million (US$13.5 million).
CTBC Financial will simply be a financial sponsor so the bank-focused conglomerate can use baseball events to boost its corporate image without infringing on the investment ban, Tseng said.
Last year, the commission withheld its approval when CTBC Charity Foundation (中信慈善基金) chairman Jeffrey Koo Jr (辜仲諒) offered to buy the Chinese-language Apple Daily, Sharp Daily and Next Magazine, citing concerns for the separation between financial companies and non-financial peers.
Jeffrey Koo Jr is the eldest son of late CTBC founder and chairman Jeffrey Koo (辜濂松).
The commission does not have jurisdiction over financial firms’ sponsorship of sport, Tseng said.
The deal would help promote sport lottery sales from next year when Adata Technology Co (威剛科技), a local manufacturer of DRAM modules and flash-memory products, is to team up with CTBC Bank (中信銀) to issue sports lottery tickets.
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