China Development Financial Holding Corp (CDFHC, 中華開發金控) is to auction off its headquarters in Taipei next year at the earliest, the firm said yesterday.
The company’s investment arm, CDIB Capital Group (中華開發資本), on Monday decided to sell the property via public auction.
CDIB Capital, previously known as China Development Industrial Bank (中華開發工銀), has owned the property since 1985.
As the financial conglomerate, along with its units China Life Insurance Co (中國人壽) and KGI Bank (凱基銀行), are to relocate to a new building in Taipei by the end of this year, they needed to decide how to deal with the old headquarters quickly, CDFHC spokesman Richard Chang (張立筌) told the Taipei Times by telephone.
“We had some ideas, such as redeveloping the 16-floor commercial building by participating in urban renewal projects or putting it up for rent, as we wanted to continue owning the property,” Chang said.
“However, given that the two proposals had more uncertainties and would take more time to materialize, we decided to just sell the building,” he said.
Asked if the company made the decision after the Financial Supervisory Commission ordered it to complete its full acquisition of China Life before June 13, 2022, Chang said that the company was looking for the most effective option to dispose of its real estate.
He declined to say how much the property is expected to fetch and how the proceeds would be used.
The building, which sits on a 750 ping (2,479m2) plot and has total floor space of about 8,000 ping, is expected to be sold at least for NT$8 billion (US$266.3 million), as it is located on Nanjing E Road in Songshan District (松山), the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported, citing local real-estate analyst Chiu Tai-hsuan (邱太煊).
China Life, which is 35 percent held by CDFHC, would be able to bid at the auction, but if the insurer wins the bid, CDFHC said that it would not be able to recognize the gains due to accounting rules.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last