The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) has approved Taishin Financial Holding Co’s (台新金控) application to acquire Prudential Life Insurance Co of Taiwan (保德信人壽), after it committed to selling all of its shares in Chang Hwa Bank (CHB, 彰化銀行) to fund the acquisition and to inject capital into the life insurer, the commission said yesterday.
Taishin Financial later announced that it would sell its CHB shares within six years and would not nominate new CHB board members or exercise its voting rights in the state-run bank’s board elections, ending its decades-long management dispute with the Ministry of Finance.
The commission told a videoconference that it approved the deal on Monday on two conditions: Taishin Financial must place all of its CHB shares in custody and it must meet Prudential Life Taiwan’s capital needs over the next decade, as the life insurer would need more capital to meet stricter solvency rules that are to take effect in Taiwan from 2026.
Photo: Kelson Wang, Taipei Times
Taishin Financial should have enough money to support the insurer as it has committed to operating it for a long time, Insurance Bureau Deputy Director-General Chang Yu-hui (張玉輝) said.
The commission did not set a minimum for how long Taishin Financial’s custodial arrangement should last, but it should match the firm’s capital injection plan for the life insurer, Banking Bureau Chief Secretary Phil Tong (童政彰) said.
The commission has reviewed Taishin Financial’s financial profile, and believes the firm’s financial strength should remain sound over the next three years, Tong said.
Taishin Financial’s capital adequacy ratio was 130 percent as of the end of last year, higher than the regulatory minimum of 100 percent, while its double leverage ratio was 118.17 percent, lower than the ceiling of 125 percent, he said.
The firm plans to complete the acquisition on July 1, Chang said, adding that it would use its own money to finance half of the NT$5.5 billion (US$199 million) deal and acquire the other half through loans.
Taishin Financial has promised to retain all Prudential Life Taiwan employees and protect policyholders’ rights, he said, adding that the firm’s board members must endorse its commitments before obtaining formal approval from the FSC.
Taishin Financial president Welch Lin (林維俊) said that the firm would dispose of its CHB shares by selling some directly on the market — including via after-hour trading and block trades — by issuing exchangeable bonds or by issuing class F preferred stocks, with the ratios of shares sold under the latter two methods being not more than one-third each.
The company has not finalized how much money it would need to inject into Prudential Life Taiwan, as it would depend on actuarial standards that have not yet been announced by the FSC, but the “money generated from the sales of our CHB shares should be more than what is needed,” Lin said.
Prudential Life Taiwan would be renamed, he said, adding that Taishin Financial’s appointment of a new management team at the insurer has been accepted by the commission.
This story has been modified since it was first published, which incorrectly stated that Taishin Financial Holding Co’s appointment of a new management team at Prudential Life Insurance Co of Taiwan has not been approved by the Financial Supervisory Commission.
LEVERAGE: China did not ‘need to fire a shot’ to deny Taiwan airspace over Africa when it owns ‘half the continent’s debt,’ a US official said, calling it economic warfare The EU has raised concerns about overflight rights following the delay of President William Lai’s (賴清德) planned state visit to the Kingdom of Eswatini after three African nations denied overflight clearance for his charter at the last minute. Taiwanese allies Paraguay and Saint Kitts and Nevis, as well as several US lawmakers and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) condemned China for allegedly pressuring the countries. Lai was scheduled to fly directly to Taiwan’s only African ally from yesterday to Sunday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession and his 58th birthday, but Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar suddenly revoked
The number of pet cats in Taiwan surpassed that of pet dogs for the first time last year, reaching 1,742,033, a 32.8 percent increase from 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday, citing a survey. By contrast, the number of pet dogs declined slightly by 1.2 percent over the same period to 1,462,528, the ministry said. Despite the shift, households with dogs still slightly outnumber those with cats by 1.2 percent. However, while the number of households with multiple dogs has remained relatively stable, households keeping more than two cats have increased, contributing to the overall rise in the feline population. The trend
China on Wednesday teased in a video an aircraft carrier that could be its fourth, and the first using nuclear power, while making an allusion to Taiwan and vowing to further build up its islands, as it looks to boost maritime power, secure resources and bolster territorial claims. The video, issued on the eve of the 77th founding anniversary of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy, featured fictional officers with names that are homophones of three commissioned aircraft carriers, the Liaoning (遼寧), Shandong (山東) and Fujian (福建). Titled Into the Deep, it showed a 19-year-old named “Hejian” (何劍) joining the group, sparking
BIG YEAR: The company said it would also release its A12 chip the same year to keep a ‘reliable stream of new silicon technologies’ flowing to its customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said its newest A13 chip is to enter volume production in 2029 as the chipmaker seeks to hold onto its tech leadership and demand for next-generation chips used in artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance-computing (HPC) and mobile applications. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, also unveiled its A12 chip at its annual technology symposium in Santa Clara, California. The A12 chip, which features TSMC’s super-power-rail technology to provide backside power delivery for AI and HPC applications, is also to enter volume production in 2029, a year after the scheduled release of the A14 chip. The technology moves
RSS