Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控) and Shin Kong Financial Holding Co (新光金控) yesterday finalized their long-anticipated merger, creating TS Financial Holding Co (台新新光金控), whose combined assets make it the fourth-largest financial holding company in Taiwan.
The new entity, with NT$8.3 trillion (US$282.3 billion) in assets, more than 10 million clients and over 1 million shareholders, aims to become a globally competitive financial group, chairman Thomas Wu (吳東亮) said at a celebration event in Taipei.
“This merger is not just about scale — it is about creating a new growth engine for Taiwan’s financial sector,” Wu said, adding that TS Financial would pursue a “multi-engine” model integrating banking, insurance, asset management and securities to drive balanced development.
Photo: CNA
While the legal merger takes effect immediately, operational integration across subsidiaries is expected to take up to a year, as the group works toward building a unified platform.
The merger marks Taiwan’s largest-ever friendly acquisition in the financial sector by transaction value, and signals a broader shift toward consolidation and scale.
TS Financial now controls 557 branches, 5,000 ATMs and a workforce of 32,000, and operates the most widely used digital banking platform in the nation.
Domestically, Wu said that the company plans to consolidate Taishin International Bank Co (台新銀行) and Shin Kong Commercial Bank Co (新光銀行) into the country’s largest retail banking network, in terms of the number of branches and digital user base.
In the insurance field, 60-year-old Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽) is to remain a core subsidiary, with plans to bolster its capital strength and long-term policyholder protection, Wu said.
International expansion, particularly in Asia, is a key goal, Wu said, adding that the group is exploring cross-border opportunities to align with global companies increasingly seeking partnerships with Taiwan.
Citing his role as chairman of the Chinese National Association of Industry and Commerce, Wu said: “Now is the best time for Taiwanese firms to step out and compete internationally. Taiwan’s financial sector must achieve sufficient scale to serve as a strong and reliable backing for our businesses abroad.”
The integration process has already begun. On the asset management front, Taishin Securities Investment Trust Co (台新投信) yesterday approved a share swap to absorb Shin Kong Investment Trust Co (新光投信), marking the first subsidiary consolidation.
Taishin Trust plans to issue 53.37 million new shares to its parent company in exchange for Shin Kong Trust shares, at a ratio of 1.3342 Taishin shares for each Shin Kong share — pending regulatory approval.
Despite optimism about long-term synergies, investors took a cautious stance. Shares of TS Financial dropped 6.3 percent to NT$16.3 yesterday on heavy volume, as the market digested the near-term integration challenges and restructuring costs.
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has approved a capital budget of US$31.28 billion for production expansion to meet long-term development needs during the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. The company’s board meeting yesterday approved the capital appropriation plan for purposes such as the installation of advanced technology capacity and fab construction, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement. At an earnings conference last month, TSMC forecast that its capital expenditure for this year would be at the higher end of the US$52 billion to US$56 billion range it forecast in January in response to robust demand for 5G, AI and
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) investment project in Arizona has progressed better than expected, but it still faces challenges such as water and labor shortages, National Development Council (NDC) Minister Yeh Chun-hsien (葉俊顯) said yesterday. Speaking with reporters after visiting TSMC’s Arizona hub and attending the SelectUSA Investment Summit in Maryland last week, Yeh said TSMC’s Arizona site turned a profit of NT$16.14 billion (US$514 million) last year in its first full year of mass production. “TSMC told me it was surprised by the smooth trial run of the first fab, which has left the company optimistic about the project’s outlook,”
RSS