Shin Kong Financial Holding Co (新光金控) yesterday said that a director on its board on Thursday proposed creating a task force to study the feasibility of a merger with Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控).
The motion was not passed, Shin Kong said.
Shin Kong Financial’s comment came after media reports said that board director Hung Shih-chi (洪士琪) suggested that the company set up a team to assess the feasibility of a merger.
The board did not make a resolution on Hung’s proposal as it was not on the agenda, Shin Kong Financial told the Taipei Times by telephone, adding that it would disclose details if a resolution is passed.
Taishin said in a statement yesterday it did not know anything about the proposal and that it had not received an invitation from Shin Kong Financial to evaluate the feasibility of a merger.
It would keep an open mind toward the matter, Taishin said.
As the companies are part of the “pan-Shin Kong Group (新光集團),” they have discussed the possibility of a merger a few years ago, the statement said.
“It might be good if the two companies have a chance to work together toward the goal this time,” Taishin said.
Former Shin Kong Financial chairman Eugene Wu (吳東進) and Taishin chairman Thomas Wu (吳東亮), who are brothers, in 2002 announced a plan to merge the two firms to establish a single financial conglomerate, but the plan collapsed the same year.
To facilitate the 2002 plan, Taishin asked Shin Kong Financial to set aside NT$19.6 billion (US$682.81 million) to cover potential losses stemming from higher insurance claims.
Because of the additional provision, Shin Kong Financial reported an after-tax loss of NT$8.82 billion instead of a projected profit of NT$3.96 billion that year, angering Taishin, which called off the merger on July 3, 2002, reports said.
The Financial Supervisory Commission would respect a decision by the two companies to merge, Banking Bureau Deputy Director-General Lin Chih-chi (林志吉) told a news conference on Thursday.
The commission had not received any reports from the companies, but if they do file an application to merge, it would examine their capital adequacy and confirm shareholder approval of any deal, Lin said.
As Taishin and Shin Kong Financial have their own banking and insurance units, the merger would be complicated, market analysts said.
If a merger were to proceed, they would face a thorough review from regulators to ensure that the financial market would not be disturbed and consumers’ interests are protected, they said.
Shin Kong Financial’s share price advanced 4.17 percent to NT$11.25 in Taipei trading yesterday, while Taishin’s gained 0.49 percent to NT$20.6, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
Popular vape brands such as Geek Bar might get more expensive in the US — if you can find them at all. Shipments of vapes from China to the US ground to a near halt last month from a year ago, official data showed, hit by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and a crackdown on unauthorized e-cigarettes in the world’s biggest market for smoking alternatives. That includes Geek Bar, a brand of flavored vapes that is not authorized to sell in the US, but which had been widely available due to porous import controls. One retailer, who asked not to be named, because
CHIP DUTIES: TSMC said it voiced its concerns to Washington about tariffs, telling the US commerce department that it wants ‘fair treatment’ to protect its competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reiterated robust business prospects for this year as strong artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from Nvidia Corp and other customers would absorb the impacts of US tariffs. “The impact of tariffs would be indirect, as the custom tax is the importers’ responsibility, not the exporters,” TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at the chipmaker’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Hsinchu City. TSMC’s business could be affected if people become reluctant to buy electronics due to inflated prices, Wei said. In addition, the chipmaker has voiced its concern to the US Department of Commerce
STILL LOADED: Last year’s richest person, Quanta Computer Inc chairman Barry Lam, dropped to second place despite an 8 percent increase in his wealth to US$12.6 billion Staff writer, with CNA Daniel Tsai (蔡明忠) and Richard Tsai (蔡明興), the brothers who run Fubon Group (富邦集團), topped the Forbes list of Taiwan’s 50 richest people this year, released on Wednesday in New York. The magazine said that a stronger New Taiwan dollar pushed the combined wealth of Taiwan’s 50 richest people up 13 percent, from US$174 billion to US$197 billion, with 36 of the people on the list seeing their wealth increase. That came as Taiwan’s economy grew 4.6 percent last year, its fastest pace in three years, driven by the strong performance of the semiconductor industry, the magazine said. The Tsai
RSS