Taipei Financial Center Corp (TFCC, 台北金融大樓公司), which operates Taipei 101, yesterday said the company’s board of directors are scheduled to meet tomorrow to discuss Blackstone Group’s request to read its due diligence report before making an offer to buy a stake from the company.
Blackstone, one of the world’s largest private equity fund companies, is considering buying a 37.17 percent stake from food conglomerate Ting Hsin International Group (頂新國際集團).
Tin Hsin is under pressure from the government to sell its local assets, particularly those in TFCC, after a series of food safety scares last year triggered a nationwide boycott of the company’s products.
“The company’s board of directors would discuss whether to grant permission to Blackstone to view our due diligence report,” TFCC spokesperson Michael Liu (劉家豪) said over the telephone.
Liu declined to comment on the reports that Blackstone has offered to buy 54.63 million shares of TFCC from Ting Hsin for about NT$16.4 billion (US$501.4 million), or NT$30 per share.
Blackstone’s investment would need an approval from the Investment Commission.
Last year, Malaysian investment company IOI Properties Group Bhd’s bid to buy all of Ting Hsin’s TFCC shares for NT$25.14 billion, or NT$45 per share, was thwarted by the Ministry of Finance, which is the biggest shareholder of TFCC, with a 52 percent stake.
Minister of Finance Chang Sheng-ford (張盛和) on Oct. 5 told lawmakers that he welcomes foreign companies interested in investing in Taipei 101, now that the government holds a majority stake and is not at risk of losing control.
TFCC declined to comment on the rumors that the company is scheduled to hold an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting to re-elect its board on Dec. 9. The Chinese-language Commercial Times reported yesterday that Ting Hsin would help Blackstone to vie for more seats in the board.
State-controlled Mega International Commercial Bank (兆豐銀行) and Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) hold six seats on the 12-member board, according to the information provided by the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
Ting Hsin has five seats on the board, while CTBC Bank (中國信託銀行) holds one seat.
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