Chunghwa Post Co (中華郵政) yesterday said that it lost approximately NT$700 million (US$22.03 million) after Mega International Commercial Bank’s (兆豐銀行) stock price tumbled 6.3 percent on Monday following reports the bank was ordered to pay a huge fine for breaching US money-laundering laws.
Chunghwa Post has a 3.5 percent stake in the bank and is one of its major investors. Mega was estimated to have lost NT$20 billion after Monday’s stock price fall.
Chunghwa Post chairman Philip Ong (翁文祺) said that the fine highlights the importance of complying with foreign regulations, while failure to do so can often bring added costs.
The fine should serve as a wake-up call to the Taiwanese banking system, Ong said.
In other news, Ong said Chunghwa Post is to erect two buildings on a plot of land behind the Taipei Beimen Post Office, close to Taipei Railway Station.
The two buildings, which are to have 50 floors and 30 floors respectively, are to become landmarks at the main thoroughfare to the west of Taipei, he said.
Ong said that the project was inspired by a visit to Tokyo in 2013, when he saw the JP Tower, which is right behind the historic Tokyo Central Post Office.
Like the Tokyo post office, the Beimen post office — built in 1930 and Taipei’s oldest — is historic, Ong said, adding that there is 13,223m2 of unused land behind it.
Ong said that the Beimen post office is in a historic district that includes the city’s old North Gate.
As such, Chunghwa Post is working with the Taipei City Government to deliver a zoning plan to allow construction of the new buildings, Ong added.
Based on a preliminary proposal, Chunghwa Post will keep the Beimen post office building and turn it into a postal museum. The smaller new building will house a hotel, as well as a campus for National Chiao Tung University, which has partial ownership over the land. The taller building is to house start-ups for innovative products and services, as well as a shopping center.
The company said that investment in the project could top NT$27 billion, which would be the postal company’s largest investment in recent years.
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