The Investment Commission said yesterday that it has received an application from IOI Properties Group Ghd to buy a 37.17 percent stake in Taipei Financial Center Corp (TFCC, 台北金融大樓), the firm that operates Taipei 101, from Ting Hsin International Group (頂新國際集團), but it is still unclear whether the Malaysian group is involved with Chinese investment.
The commission said it received the application on Friday last week, but would not process it yet, as it has not yet received an application to sell its stake from Ting Hsin.
“According to the Statute for Investment by Foreign Nationals (外國人投資條例), a review of the deal will begin only when both the selling party and the buying party submit their applications for permission for the transaction,” commission acting executive secretary Emile Chang (張銘斌) told a news conference.
“After receiving Ting Hsin’s application, we will also require IOI Group to offer more detailed information regarding its shareholders and its funding resources,” Chang said.
Ting Hsin earlier this month inked the 37.17 percent share deal with IOI Group for NT$25.14 billion (US$796.07 million).
In IOI Group’s application, the firm said only that it would transfer NT$700 million into Taiwan for the acquisition, but it did not specify where the balance would come from, Chang said.
Moreover, Chang said IOI Group’s application did not clear up doubts on whether Chinese capital is involved in the group.
Chang reiterated the commission’s stance, saying that the proposed purchase deal cannot have any Chinese capital involved.
“IOI Group has to present all relevant documents to prove that it meets our requirements,” Chang added.
Ting Hsin is trying to unload its interest in the TFCC because of a liquidity crunch it is facing after being embroiled in a scandal involving the group’s food and cooking oils subsidiaries that torpedoed its image and sparked a consumer backlash.
The TFCC board forced Ting Hsin to give up management control of the property and has urged the conglomerate to sell its ownership stake to prevent Ting Hsin’s problems from engulfing the iconic skyscraper.
Additional reporting by CNA
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