The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) on Thursday denied rumors that it has been blocking Nan Shan Life Insurance Co’s (南山人壽) bid to hold an initial public offering.
Companies planning to go public require the approval of the Taiwan Stock Exchange or the Taipei Exchange and industry regulators, which for Nan Shan would be the commission’s Insurance Bureau.
Nan Shan in September last year announced its plans to go public, but a lack of progress has given rise to rumors of opposition from the commission.
“The commission is in the process of defining a set of rules and requirements for the listing of insurers that would be applied across the industry,” Insurance Bureau Deputy Director-General Shih Chiung-hwa (施瓊華) told a news conference in Taipei.
The commission has yet to receive an application from Nan Shan, Shih said, adding that listing approval takes several factors into account, including financial condition and resilience, and whether an applicant has ongoing labor disputes.
FSC Chairman Wellington Koo (顧立雄), who recently held two meetings with the bureau, has said that it would be difficult to draw up an industry-wide standard.
Nan Shan said it is still preparing its application.
However, market observers have said that a promise made by Ruentex Group (潤泰集團) chairman Samuel Yin (尹衍樑) to the commission in 2011, when he bought Nan Shan, that he would not sell the insurer for at least 10 years remains an obstacle.
In another complication, Nan Shan’s labor union has continued to criticized the firm’s layoff and employee transition plans, despite retraining efforts by the company.
However, Nan Shan’s increased net value under a new accounting rule might help its listing bid, some people have said.
Nan Shan on Thursday reported that its net value rose NT$76.5 billion (US$2.63 billion) to about NT$260 billion as the company reclassified its financial assets according to the International Financial Reporting Standard 9 guideline.
The new accounting rule means that life insurers’ net value is not subject to wild swings due to changes in unrealized profit or loss from their debt investments, as well as debt investments that are intended to be held until maturity.
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