State-run First Financial Holding Co (第一金控) yesterday refused to say whether chairman Joseph Tsai (蔡慶年) has offered to resign over a troubled syndicated loan, saying that losses could be minimized if the Ministry of National Defense presses ahead with a project to build minesweepers.
“We do not have authorization to comment on the issue, except to reiterate that losses would fall from NT$12.5 billion to NT$4.5 billion [US$413.5 million to US$148.9 million] if the ministry continues to pursue the project,” a First Financial communications official said by telephone.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wang Ding-yu (王定宇) yesterday told reporters that Tsai had offered to step down and that Premier William Lai (賴清德) was mulling the issue.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
First Commercial Bank (第一銀行), the holding company’s main subsidiary and the lead bank of a NT$15.4 billion syndicated loan to Ching Fu Shipbuilding Co (慶富造船), late on Wednesday said in a statement that the loan had defaulted due to the shipbuilder’s failure to honor its terms.
Kaohsiung-based Ching Fu has been unable to procure NT$310 million required to keep debt negotiations alive and contest injunctions, the statement said.
“The creditor banks had no choice, but to declare the loan in default, with maximum total losses of NT$12.5 billion for nine state-run banks,” the statement said.
The other creditors are Land Bank of Taiwan (土地銀行), Taiwan Cooperative Bank (合庫銀行), Bank of Taiwan (臺灣銀行), Hua Nan Commercial Bank (華南銀行), Chang Hwa Commercial Bank (彰化銀行), Taiwan Business Bank (台灣企銀), Agricultural Bank of Taiwan (農業金庫) and the Export-Import Bank of the Republic of China (中國輸出入銀行).
The banks’ losses range from NT$300 million to NT$5.8 billion, the statement said.
The banks have requested that the Kaohsiung District Court freeze Ching Fu’s assets, raising concern that the shipbuilder might go bankrupt.
Ching Fu has a navy contract worth NT$35.8 billion to build six minesweepers, but its solvency has been called into question after the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office named it in a financial fraud investigation.
Kaohsiung District Court Chief Judge Yeh Wen-po (葉文博) yesterday confirmed that the court has received legal documents from First Commercial Bank requesting the sequestration of the shipbuilder’s assets, but declined to provide additional information.
Prosecutors yesterday summoned for questioning Ching Fu chairman Chen Ching-nan (陳慶男); his wife, Chen Lu Chao-hsia (陳盧昭霞); and his son Chen Wei-chih (陳偉志), who serve as the shipbuilder’s director and vice chairman respectively.
The questioning was focused on whether Ching Fu used one or more offshore subsidiaries to make fraudulent loan applications, head prosecutor Ko Kuang-hui (葛光輝) said.
Prosecutors have asked the three to report to the Kaohsiung Police Department’s Cianjhen Precinct daily or risk detainment as flight risks, Ko said.
The office would continue to closely monitor Ching Fu’s operations, including the minesweeper project, he added.
The ministry is required to allow Ching Fu to work on the ships until it has reason to believe the shipbuilder is unable to finance its debts, sources said.
At that point, the ministry will likely dissolve its contract with Ching Fu, and it has contingency plans to transfer production to another contractor or reopen bidding, they added.
LIMITS: While China increases military pressure on Taiwan and expands its use of cognitive warfare, it is unwilling to target tech supply chains, the report said US and Taiwan military officials have warned that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could implement a blockade within “a matter of hours” and need only “minimal conversion time” prior to an attack on Taiwan, a report released on Tuesday by the US Senate’s China Economic and Security Review Commission said. “While there is no indication that China is planning an imminent attack, the United States and its allies and partners can no longer assume that a Taiwan contingency is a distant possibility for which they would have ample time to prepare,” it said. The commission made the comments in its annual
DETERMINATION: Beijing’s actions toward Tokyo have drawn international attention, but would likely bolster regional coordination and defense networks, the report said Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s administration is likely to prioritize security reforms and deterrence in the face of recent “hybrid” threats from China, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said. The bureau made the assessment in a written report to the Legislative Yuan ahead of an oral report and questions-and-answers session at the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The key points of Japan’s security reforms would be to reinforce security cooperation with the US, including enhancing defense deployment in the first island chain, pushing forward the integrated command and operations of the Japan Self-Defense Forces and US Forces Japan, as
IN THE NATIONAL INTEREST: Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu said the strengthening of military facilities would help to maintain security in the Taiwan Strait Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi, visiting a military base close to Taiwan, said plans to deploy missiles to the post would move forward as tensions smolder between Tokyo and Beijing. “The deployment can help lower the chance of an armed attack on our country,” Koizumi told reporters on Sunday as he wrapped up his first trip to the base on the southern Japanese island of Yonaguni. “The view that it will heighten regional tensions is not accurate.” Former Japanese minister of defense Gen Nakatani in January said that Tokyo wanted to base Type 03 Chu-SAM missiles on Yonaguni, but little progress
NO CHANGES: A Japanese spokesperson said that Tokyo remains consistent and open for dialogue, while Beijing has canceled diplomatic engagements A Japanese official blasted China’s claims that Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has altered Japan’s position on a Taiwan crisis as “entirely baseless,” calling for more dialogue to stop ties between Asia’s top economies from spiraling. China vowed to take resolute self-defense against Japan if it “dared to intervene militarily in the Taiwan Strait” in a letter delivered Friday to the UN. “I’m aware of this letter,” said Maki Kobayashi, a senior Japanese government spokeswoman. “The claim our country has altered its position is entirely baseless,” she said on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Johannesburg on Saturday. The Chinese Ministry
RSS