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.
ENERGY ISSUES: The TSIA urged the government to increase natural gas and helium reserves to reduce the impact of the Middle East war on semiconductor supply stability Chip testing and packaging service provider ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控) yesterday said it planned to invest more than NT$100 billion (US$3.15 billion) in building a new advanced chip testing facility in Kaohsiung to keep up with customer demand driven by the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. That would be included in the company’s capital expenditure budget next year, ASE said. There is also room to raise this year’s capital spending budget from a record-high US$7 billion estimated three months ago, it added. ASE would have six factories under construction this year, another record-breaking number, ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu
The EU and US are nearing an agreement to coordinate on producing and securing critical minerals, part of a push to break reliance on Chinese supplies. The potential deal would create incentives, such as minimum prices, that could advantage non-Chinese suppliers, according to a draft of an “action plan” seen by Bloomberg. The EU and US would also cooperate on standards, investments and joint projects, as well as coordinate on any supply disruptions by countries like China. The two sides are additionally seeking other “like-minded partners” to join a multicountry accord to help create these new critical mineral supply chains, which feed into
For weeks now, the global tech industry has been waiting for a major artificial intelligence (AI) launch from DeepSeek (深度求索), seen as a benchmark for China’s progress in the fast-moving field. More than a year has passed since the start-up put Chinese AI on the map in early last year with a low-cost chatbot that performed at a similar level to US rivals. However, despite reports and rumors about its imminent release, DeepSeek’s next-generation “V4” model is nowhere in sight. Speculation is also swirling over the geopolitical implications of which computer chips were chosen to train and power the new
TECH WINNERS: Taiwan and South Korea reported robust trade, which suggests that they have critical advantages in the rapidly expanding AI supply chain, an official said Exports last month surged to a new high, as booming demand tied to artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure fueled shipments of advanced technology components, underscoring the nation’s pivotal role in the global semiconductor supply chain. Outbound shipments climbed to US$80.18 billion, the highest ever for a single month, rising 61.8 percent from a year earlier and marking the 29th consecutive month of growth, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. “The surge was driven primarily by global investment in AI infrastructure,” Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) said. The mass production of next-generation AI computing systems has accelerated procurement across the semiconductor supply
RSS