German insurance heavyweight Allianz SE is interested in buying Australian competitor QBE Insurance Group Ltd, German business daily Handelsblatt reported on Monday, although the second company denies talks are going on.
Allianz CEO Oliver Baete met with QBE counterpart John Neal in late December last year to discuss a possible tie-up, the newspaper reported, citing financial industry sources.
Allianz could offer as much as A$15 (US$11.34) per share, the sources told Handelsblatt, a 20 percent markup on QBE’s price in Sydney on Friday last week that would value the firm at A$20 billion.
The Baete-Neal meeting was “friendly,” but there is no concrete offer on the table from Allianz so far, the newspaper added.
In a brief statement issued on Monday, QBE said “it is not in discussions with Allianz or any other potential buyer.”
An Allianz spokesman refused to comment on the report when contacted by reporters.
The Munich, Germany-based insurer is the focus of intense media speculation about its possible takeover targets.
Along with France’s Axa SA and Italy’s Intesa Sanpaolo SpA, Allianz was last week reported to be considering a joint takeover of Italian insurer Assicurazioni Generali SpA, which has been weakened by the departure of chief Mario Greco early last year.
Baete said in a recent interview that the group was interested in making one or several acquisitions, but insisted that any takeover target must be of significant size, at a good price and amicable.
“The risks of such large takeovers are so great, that you really need a friendly relationship with the management to make it a success,” he told German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung in the middle of last month.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
PRESSURE EXPECTED: The appreciation of the NT dollar reflected expectations that Washington would press Taiwan to boost its currency against the US dollar, dealers said Taiwan’s export-oriented semiconductor and auto part manufacturers are expecting their margins to be affected by large foreign exchange losses as the New Taiwan dollar continued to appreciate sharply against the US dollar yesterday. Among major semiconductor manufacturers, ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光), the world’s largest integrated circuit (IC) packaging and testing services provider, said that whenever the NT dollar rises NT$1 against the greenback, its gross margin is cut by about 1.5 percent. The NT dollar traded as strong as NT$29.59 per US dollar before trimming gains to close NT$0.919, or 2.96 percent, higher at NT$30.145 yesterday in Taipei trading
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