TTY Biopharm Co Ltd (台灣東洋藥品) chairman Lin Chuan (林全) yesterday refuted rumors that the company had engaged in insider trading ahead of last month’s announcement that it had won conditional rights to market Bio-NTech SE’s COVID-19 vaccine in Taiwan.
Lawmakers on Monday said they suspected that the firm was involved in insider trading, as 2,414 TTY units were traded on the Taipei Exchange on Oct. 12, surging 6.6 times from an average daily trading volume of 365 units in September.
TTY said that it had secured authorization to market the vaccines after the market closed on the same day.
Photo: CNA
The firm’s share price spiked from NT$69.5 to NT$84.3 on Oct. 15, when a total of 30,108 units were traded, before gradually falling to NT$82.2 on Monday last week, with a total 10,725 units traded, one day before TTY said it had terminated its bid to gain Bio-NTech’s authorization to market the vaccine.
The transactions must have been done by someone with insider information, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator William Tseng (曾銘宗) said on Monday.
“I never conducted any insider trading as I despise the behavior. I would welcome any investigation,” Lin told a news conference in Taipei.
“However, there indeed was a chance that someone conducted the insider trading, as the trading volume on Oct. 12 was too high to be normal,” Lin said.
TTY noticed the abnormal trading activity late on Oct. 12 and ran a preliminary investigation before notifying the exchange on Oct. 15, general manager Robbin Shih (施俊良) told a media briefing.
In addition to TTY employees, some officials at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Bio-NTech staff and local agents of China-based Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Co (上海復星醫藥) were involved in the negotiations and knew TTY’s intention to introduce the vaccines, Shih said.
“I highly doubt that it was outside people who conducted the illegal trading, but I would not know who they were. I hope that prosecutors can get to the bottom of it soon,” Lin said.
TTY’s move to abandon the bid to market the vaccine in Taiwan gained attention, as the Bio-NTech and Pfizer Inc-developed vaccine had shown 90 percent effectiveness in preventing COVID-19, prompting speculation that TTY had failed to reach an agreement due to political concerns.
Lin said that TTY stopped trying to acquire the rights as the number of vaccines the CDC intends to purchase was much less than TTY’s expectations, which made the negotiations between TTY and Bio-NTech difficult.
Dutch brewing company Heineken NV yesterday said that it has reached an agreement to acquire a subsidiary brewery of Taiwan’s Sanyo Whisbih Group (三洋維士比集團). Heineken is to assume majority ownership and management rights of the Long Chuan Zuan Co (龍泉鑽興業) brewery in Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔), the Dutch company said. It would become the first multinational brewing company to operate brewery in Taiwan once the acquisition is completed. The deal has been approved by the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Investment Commission, but details of the financial transaction cannot be disclosed at this time, as terms of the settlement have not been completed,
Had Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck hopped on an electric scooter rather than a Vespa in the classic film Roman Holiday, their spin around the Eternal City might have ended in tears. The number of crashes and near-misses involving the two-wheelers has prompted Rome authorities to impose some order on a booming rental market that began two years ago. The havoc came to a head earlier this month when two US tourists attempted a night-time drive down the Spanish Steps, causing more than 25,000 euros (US$26,392) worth of damage to the 18th-century monument. Caught on security footage, the couple in their late 20s
LOOK WHO OWES: China’s exposure to Taiwanese banks was the second-largest, with Luxembourg third, followed by Hong Kong and Japan, the central bank said The US remained the largest debtor country to Taiwan’s banking sector for a 27th consecutive quarter in the first quarter of this year, with its exposure rising 8.3 percent from a quarter earlier on the back of an increase in US bonds, the central bank said on Friday. Data compiled by the central bank showed that outstanding international claims by Taiwanese banks on a direct risk basis to the US stood at US$125.38 billion as of the end of March. Department of Financial Inspection deputy head Pan Ya-hui (潘雅慧) said that the US Federal Reserve’s launch of a rate hike cycle in
GREEN CITY: The company is set to invest US$8 billion to make electric vehicles and batteries for a new city that would rely entirely on renewable energy sources Indonesia said that Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) is considering investing in the country’s new capital city, a move that would bolster the US$34 billion construction project. Hon Hai, which is known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), is looking at setting up an electric bus system and an Internet of Things network at Nusantara, as Indonesia’s new capital is to be called, Indonesian Minister of Investment Bahlil Lahadalia said in a statement yesterday. Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) met with Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Saturday to discuss the company’s plan to invest US$8 billion to build a manufacturing plant
RSS