Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控) yesterday said it is considering adjusting its share swap ratio to compete with CTBC Financial Holding Co’s (中信金控) bid for Shin Kong Financial Holding Co (新光金控).
“The company would make appropriate adjustments to the share swap ratio at an appropriate time,” Taishin Financial president Welch Lin (林維俊) told investors at an earnings conference in Taipei.
Lin’s remarks came as the takeover battle for Shin Kong Financial heats up after CTBC Financial on Friday unveiled the terms of its tender offer.
Photo: CNA
CTBC Financial is offering a share swap ratio of 0.3132 of its shares plus NT$4.09 in cash for each Shin Kong Financial share. Based on CTBC’s closing share price on Friday, that translates into NT$14.55 in cash and stock per share for Shin Kong Financial.
That is better than the NT$11.32 per share offered by Taishin Financial a day earlier: a share swap ratio of 0.6022 of Taishin Financial ordinary shares for each Shin Kong Financial ordinary share, plus a 1:1 swap of their preferred shares.
As CTBC Financial on Monday filed an application with the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) for approval of its tender offer bid, Taishin Financial is under growing pressure to sweeten its deal with Shin Kong Financial ahead of the two companies’ respective extraordinary shareholders’ meetings on Oct. 9.
Bid figures change due to fluctuations in the companies’ stock prices, Lin said, but added that Taishin Financial would adjust the share swap ratio if needed.
However, the boards of directors of the two companies would have to repeat the same procedure as on Thursday last week before the share swap ratio can be adjusted, he said.
Taishin Financial also hopes the FSC, which has to respond to CTBC Financial’s application within 15 business days, can support its friendly takeover bid, Lin said.
If the commission approves its rival’s hostile takeover application, it would be unfair to Taishin Financial and pose risks to the domestic financial market, he said.
In the first half of the year, the bank-centric financial conglomerate reported a net income of NT$10.6 billion (US$332 million), up 19.1 percent from NT$8.9 billion a year earlier. It had a book value of NT$13.93 per share, earnings per share of NT$0.74 and return on equity of 11.17 percent.
Taishin International Bank (台新銀行) contributed a net income of NT$8.63 billion in the first half, up 10 percent year-on-year, thanks to an 11.4 percent growth in loans, a 9.8 percent increase in deposits and a 30.6 percent surge in wealth management business, coupled with healthy progress in its credit card business, the company said.
Taishin Financial Holding Co chief financial officer Carol Lai (賴昭吟) said the company expects the central bank to keep interest rates unchanged in the second half of the year, while the US Federal Reserve is likely to cut rates by 0.25 percentage points each next month and in December, which would be beneficial to the company’s foreign currency lending business, Lai added.
Shiina Ito has had fewer Chinese customers at her Tokyo jewelry shop since Beijing issued a travel warning in the wake of a diplomatic spat, but she said she was not concerned. A souring of Tokyo-Beijing relations this month, following remarks by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi about Taiwan, has fueled concerns about the impact on the ritzy boutiques, noodle joints and hotels where holidaymakers spend their cash. However, businesses in Tokyo largely shrugged off any anxiety. “Since there are fewer Chinese customers, it’s become a bit easier for Japanese shoppers to visit, so our sales haven’t really dropped,” Ito
The number of Taiwanese working in the US rose to a record high of 137,000 last year, driven largely by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) rapid overseas expansion, according to government data released yesterday. A total of 666,000 Taiwanese nationals were employed abroad last year, an increase of 45,000 from 2023 and the highest level since the COVID-19 pandemic, data from the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) showed. Overseas employment had steadily increased between 2009 and 2019, peaking at 739,000, before plunging to 319,000 in 2021 amid US-China trade tensions, global supply chain shifts, reshoring by Taiwanese companies and
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) Chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) and the company’s former chairman, Mark Liu (劉德音), both received the Robert N. Noyce Award -- the semiconductor industry’s highest honor -- in San Jose, California, on Thursday (local time). Speaking at the award event, Liu, who retired last year, expressed gratitude to his wife, his dissertation advisor at the University of California, Berkeley, his supervisors at AT&T Bell Laboratories -- where he worked on optical fiber communication systems before joining TSMC, TSMC partners, and industry colleagues. Liu said that working alongside TSMC
TECHNOLOGY DAY: The Taiwanese firm is also setting up a joint venture with Alphabet Inc on robots and plans to establish a firm in Japan to produce Model A EVs Manufacturing giant Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday announced a collaboration with ChatGPT developer OpenAI to build next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure and strengthen its local supply chain in the US to accelerate the deployment of advanced AI systems. Building such an infrastructure in the US is crucial for strengthening local supply chains and supporting the US in maintaining its leading position in the AI domain, Hon Hai said in a statement. Through the collaboration, OpenAI would share its insights into emerging hardware needs in the AI industry with Hon Hai to support the company’s design and development work, as well
RSS