The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday fined Hong Kong-based Capital Target Ltd (CTL, 建群), a major shareholder of Jih Sun Financial Holding Co (日盛金控), NT$25 million (US$898,569) for its faulty beneficiary disclosure and ordered CTL to offload part of its stake in Jih Sun within a year.
CTL holds a 24.09 percent stake in Jih Sun and the commission would allow the company to retain a 5 percent stake, Banking Bureau Deputy Director Sherri Chuang (莊秀媛) told a videoconference, adding that its regulations require any shareholder with more than a 5 percent stake in a local financial conglomerate to reveal its beneficiaries.
The commission would not be concerned if CTL sells its shares to Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控), which has gained majority control of Jih Sun, or other buyers, but it must sell the 19.09 percent stake within a year, she added.
Photo: Kelson Wang, Taipei Times
The commission started a probe into CTL’s shareholder structure in July last year amid market speculation that the firm is owned by Chinese tycoon Xiao Jianhua (肖建華), head of the Chinese conglomerate Tomorrow Holding Ltd (明天控股).
CTL at the time told the commission that its beneficiary was Derek Chen (陳銘達), the same information it disclosed in 2009 when it applied to invest in Jih Sun.
Derek Chen, a Taiwanese, said he has no business relationship with Xiao and that he co-owned CTL with two female investors, surnamed Chen (陳) and Li (黎), with two of the three having formerly served as board members of Jih Sun.
However, the commission found their information suspicious, Chuang said.
“We talked to Derek Chen and the two other investors in person or by videoconference, and found that their stories did not match,” she said, referring to questions such as why they formed a joint investment and where their funds came from.
CTL is wholly owned by Hong Kong-based Best Fortune Investments Ltd, which is 40 percent owned by Derek Chen and 60 percent by another overseas company coheld by Derek Chen and his female partners, Chuang said.
However, the three failed to present fund flow records to prove that the money used to invest in Jih Sun came from their own pockets, Chuang said.
“Without any proof, we found their stories unbelievable,” she said.
The commission said it concluded that the three were not CTL’s real beneficiaries and decided to fine the firm NT$25 million, half of the maximum fine of NT$50 million.
It is the first time that the commission has punished a company for faulty beneficiary disclosures since the regulations were tightened last year.
After several years flying high as Asia’s best Nvidia Corp proxy, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is increasingly vying with other artificial intelligence (AI) stocks for investor attention. Stock traders are chasing a wider array of beneficiaries as mainstream usage of AI creates demand for hardware beyond the most-advanced chips TSMC makes for Nvidia. Subthemes from the deepening memory crunch to advances in robotics are also luring bids. At the same time, investment caps on single stocks are pushing funds to diversify, while retail investors long familiar with TSMC through its US depositary receipts are being offered a broader set of
Netherlands-based semiconductor equipment supplier ASML Holding NV yesterday said that it is planning to hire an additional 1,000 people in Taiwan this year in response to growing demand from clients. ASML had previously planned to recruit 600 people this year, but that the plan has been adjusted upward, ASML vice president and ASML Taiwan general manager Grace Wang (汪佳慧) told reporters. ASML has a workforce of more than 4,500 in Taiwan, accounting for about 10 percent of its global total, Wang said. This year’s recruitment campaign would focus on adding people in the customer support, manufacturing and supply chain domains to assist ASML
UNDER MICROSCOPE: Taiwan detained three people who allegedly conspired to buy servers in Taiwan and export them using fraudulent documentation, prosecutors said Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Saturday urged Super Micro Computer Inc to tighten up on compliance after Taiwan detained three people this week for allegedly making fraudulent declarations about artificial intelligence (AI) servers made by its US partner. The development marked the nation’s first crackdown on semiconductor smuggling, which grew after the US slapped restrictions on exports of high-end chips such as Nvidia AI accelerators to China. Nvidia is “rigorous” in explaining regulations to all of its partners, Huang told reporters after arriving in Taipei. “Ultimately Super Micro has to run their own company,” he said in response to
Nvidia Corp yesterday announced that CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) would attend an employee meeting in Taipei tomorrow to celebrate the launch of the company’s Taiwan headquarters project. Huang would attend a gathering at the site of Nvidia’s planned headquarters in Beitou Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區), the company said in a statement. After arriving in Taiwan on Saturday last week, Huang told reporters that he plans to meet with Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家), and would attend the groundbreaking ceremony for Nvidia’s Taiwan headquarters tomorrow. Nvidia has not yet applied
RSS