SinoPac Financial Holding Co (建華金控), the nation's 10th largest financial service provider, vowed to wrap up a merger and acquisition (M&A) deal with the most likely candidate -- the International Bank of Taipei (IBT, 台北商銀) -- by the year's end, the firm said yesterday after electing a new board.
The new board also elected Edward Chien (
Chien, former chairman of Hua Nan Commercial Bank (
"SinoPac is a very nice medium-sized financial holding company with development potential ? and I hope to help its expansion [during my chairmanship]," Chien said at a press conference.
Paul Lo (
"Size matters," Lo said at the press conference, adding that it is hard for any bank to survive in Taiwan without a few key elements, including over NT$1 trillion of assets, close to 100 outlets in the greater Taipei area or more than 100 branches nationwide.
Against this backdrop, Lo said SinoPac will complete its M&A plan by the end of this year, as its foreign investors -- which hold over 33 percent of the company -- are running out of patience.
SinoPac was already in merger talks with IBT when former chairman Hong said that he preferred an alliance with Taishin Financial Holding Co (
Previously, IBT proposed to merge with SinoPac with a share-swap ratio of one of its shares for 1.25 to 1.3 SinoPac shares. Taishin meanwhile offered to pay NT$23.50 a share, or a 35 percent premium, to buy SinoPac, which is equivalent to about US$2.9 billion, consisting of as much as 40 percent in cash with the remainder to be paid in shares.
Lo yesterday said that IBT is an ideal candidate, as the merger would boost SinoPac's assets to over NT$1 trillion from the current NT$600 billion.
The financial holding firm favors partnership through a share swap as this will prevent it from having to amortize any goodwill losses, especially since the company has an inadequate cash position to acquire banks at the moment, he added.
Taishin, which pressed libel charges against Lu and SinoPac's spokesman Kevin Peng (
Taishin has therefore withdrawn the charges, the statement read.
Taishin had accused Peng and Lo of sending out incorrect information in two e-mails, on April 18 and April 19, to overseas investors, saying that Taishin chairman Thomas Wu (吳東亮) was not sincere about the merger and had not made a genuine offer.
SELL-OFF: Investors expect tariff-driven volatility as the local boarse reopens today, while analysts say government support and solid fundamentals would steady sentiment Local investors are bracing for a sharp market downturn today as the nation’s financial markets resume trading following a two-day closure for national holidays before the weekend, with sentiment rattled by US President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff announcement. Trump’s unveiling of new “reciprocal tariffs” on Wednesday triggered a sell-off in global markets, with the FTSE Taiwan Index Futures — a benchmark for Taiwanese equities traded in Singapore — tumbling 9.2 percent over the past two sessions. Meanwhile, the American depositary receipts (ADRs) of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the most heavily weighted stock on the TAIEX, plunged 13.8 percent in
A wave of stop-loss selling and panic selling hit Taiwan's stock market at its opening today, with the weighted index plunging 2,086 points — a drop of more than 9.7 percent — marking the largest intraday point and percentage loss on record. The index bottomed out at 19,212.02, while futures were locked limit-down, with more than 1,000 stocks hitting their daily drop limit. Three heavyweight stocks — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (Foxconn, 鴻海精密) and MediaTek (聯發科) — hit their limit-down prices as soon as the market opened, falling to NT$848 (US$25.54), NT$138.5 and NT$1,295 respectively. TSMC's
TARIFFS: The global ‘panic atmosphere remains strong,’ and foreign investors have continued to sell their holdings since the start of the year, the Ministry of Finance said The government yesterday authorized the activation of its NT$500 billion (US$15.15 billion) National Stabilization Fund (NSF) to prop up the local stock market after two days of sharp falls in reaction to US President Donald Trump’s new import tariffs. The Ministry of Finance said in a statement after the market close that the steering committee of the fund had been given the go-ahead to intervene in the market to bolster Taiwanese shares in a time of crisis. The fund has been authorized to use its assets “to carry out market stabilization tasks as appropriate to maintain the stability of Taiwan’s
STEEP DECLINE: Yesterday’s drop was the third-steepest in its history, the steepest being Monday’s drop in the wake of the tariff announcement on Wednesday last week Taiwanese stocks continued their heavy sell-off yesterday, as concerns over US tariffs and unwinding of leveraged bets weighed on the market. The benchmark TAIEX plunged 1,068.19 points, or 5.79 percent, to 17,391.76, notching the biggest drop among Asian peers as it hit a 15-month low. The decline came even after the government on late Tuesday authorized the NT$500 billion (US$15.2 billion) National Stabilization Fund (國安基金) to step in to buoy the market amid investors’ worries over tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump. Yesterday’s decline was the third-steepest in its history, trailing only the declines of 2,065.87 points on Monday and
RSS