The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) is considering expediting listed companies’ share issuance proposals to enhance efficiency in local capital markets, the commission said yesterday.
Listed companies must apply to the FSC before issuing new shares and often have to take into account rule changes, Securities and Futures Bureau Deputy Director Kuo Chia-chun (郭佳君) told a news conference in Taipei.
However, the commission is considering allowing firms to file applications covering multiple issuances within two years, Kuo said.
Under the proposed mechanism, a firm would need to report the total number of shares it is planning to issue and the total amount of funds it is planning to raise in the next two years, Kuo said.
If the commission approves the plan, the firm could issue multiple batches of shares without having to apply individually, Kuo said.
The mechanism would boost efficiency in the local capital markets by shortening issuance procedures from three months to one-and-a-half months, Kuo told the Taipei Times by telephone.
Under the current rules, it usually takes underwriters about one month to evaluate a company’s issuance plan, while reviews of issuance applications take another 17 days on average, Kuo said.
Eventually, it takes the company about one-and-a-half months to negotiate with shareholders that are willing to acquire the new shares, he added.
Under the new mechanism, approvals would cover multiple issuances and underwriters would not have to evaluate every single issuance plan, Kuo said.
However, the new mechanism would only apply to two types of listed companies: Firms with operation scales and capital expenditures above a certain limit and firms whose product development takes a longer time, Kuo said, adding that semiconductor firms and biotech companies would likely fall into the two groups.
The main reason that not all listed companies could benefit from the eased rules is that market regulators, including the Taiwan Stock Exchange, the Taipei Exchange and the FSC, would have to be more stringent in reviewing proposals by eligible firms, taking into account their financial files as well as their business outlook for the next two years, Kuo said.
Although there is no ban on listed companies posting red numbers that wish to issue new shares, regulators are usually more cautiously when reviewing their applications and demand business improvement plans, Kuo said.
Regulators would likely be more careful when reviewing applications that involve a firm’s future outlook, she said.
Based on the experiences with similar mechanisms implemented by regulators in the US, Japan and South Korea, the FSC would only open its new mechanism to certain companies, Kuo said.
The FSC would finish drafting the plan next quarter, Kuo said.
New share issuances raised a total of NT$58.5 billion (US$2.11 billion) in the first half of this year, up 99 percent from NT$29.3 billion a year earlier, FSC data showed.
Among 147 firms that issued new shares in 2019 or last year, 18 companies conducted more than one issuance, the data showed.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, has decided to slow down its 3-nanometer chip production as Intel Corp, one of its major customers, plans to push back the launch of its new Meteor Lake tGPU chipsets to the end of next year, market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. That means Intel has canceled almost all of the 3-nanometer capacity booked for next year, with only a small amount of wafer input remaining for engineering verification, the Taipei-based researcher said in a report. Based on Intel’s original schedule, TSMC was to start producing the new chipsets in
DATA SHOW DOWNTURN: Manufacturing in Taiwan contracted as production and demand slumped, while growth in chip exports last month eased in South Korea World chip sales growth has decelerated for six straight months in another sign that the global economy is straining under the weight of rising interest rates and mounting geopolitical risks. Semiconductor sales rose 13.3 percent in June from a year earlier, down from 18 percent in May, data from the global peak industry body showed. The slowdown is the longest since the US-China trade dispute in 2018. The three-month moving average in chip sales has correlated with the global economy’s performance in the past few decades. The latest weakness comes as concern about a worldwide recession has prompted chipmakers such as Samsung
‘NO NEED TO WORRY’: The central bank governor said foreign selling on the TAIEX is normal for this time of year and that the nation has ample forex reserves Taiwan would emerge unscathed from China’s retaliatory actions to protest US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei, top monetary and financial officials said yesterday. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-long (楊金龍) shrugged off unease over potential instability in the foreign exchange and stock markets after foreign portfolio funds trimmed their holdings of local shares for two straight days amid Beijing’s threats of retaliation. “There is no need to worry,” Yang said on the sidelines of an event to celebrate the first anniversary of the opening of Central American Bank for Economic Integration’s (CABEI) Taipei office and the 30th anniversary of
Italy is close to clinching a deal initially worth US$5 billion with Intel Corp to build an advanced semiconductor packaging and assembly plant in the country, two sources briefed on discussions said yesterday. Intel’s investment in Italy is part of a wider plan announced by the US chipmaker earlier this year to invest US$88 billion in building capacity across Europe, which is striving to cut its reliance on Asian chip imports and ease a supply crunch that has curbed output in the region’s strategic auto sector. Asking not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, the sources said the
RSS