Employees of state-run Taiwan Business Bank (台灣企銀) are threatening to go on strike over job security next Friday, a move which an analyst said could actually benefit the bank's potential buyers by depressing its share price.
"The planned strike may not obstruct the bank's share sale and could be welcomed by interested bidders," Shirley Yang (楊慶祺), a fund manager who manages NT$1.2 billion worth of funds at Invesco Taiwan Ltd (景順投信), said in a phone interview yesterday.
The strike could weaken the bank's share price and therefore help drag down costs to interested buyers, Yang said.
The bank, in which the government currently holds a 44-percent stake, plans to sell all of its shares through a 100-percent share swap, as part of the government's goal to halve the number of state banks to six by the year's end.
The winner bid will have to acquire both the bank's common shares and its new preferred shares, priced at NT$10 per share and valid for six months after issuance, and to pay in cash to redeem the preferred shares when they are due.
Given that the bank has more than 100 outlets nationwide, valuable assets and the government's credit assurance funds to cover bad loans made to small and medium enterprises, interested parties could offer NT$12 to NT$14 per share, or between NT$50 billion (US$1.53 billion) and NT$60 billion in total, for the bank, Yang said.
Since the bank is slated to open the tender on Sept 10, Taiwan Business Bank Industrial Union (台灣企銀工會) decided on Tuesday to stage a strike on Sept. 9, hoping to get management to sign a collective agreement before the share sale is settled.
"We have asked all members to participate in the strike. We are not giving way over our demands for a three-year job security guarantee after the bank is taken over," union chairman Lin Wan-fu (林萬福) said in a phone interview yesterday.
Employees are also dissatisfied with the way the share sale has been conducted by the bank's five-person task force, Lin said, noting that none of the board directors who represent the union are on the task force.
However, Minister of Finance Lin Chuan (林全) said yesterday that while the ministry respects the union's decision and employees' right to strike, it did not necessarily accept the union's demand for a three-year job guarantee. Last week the ministry said that its bottom line was a two-year job guarantee.
Jong Huey-jen (鍾慧貞), deputy director-general of the Financial Supervisory Commission's Banking Bureau, said that the agency has asked the bank to keep communicating with employees while formulating personnel and technology resources to maintain financial stability during a strike.
The bank said in a statement yesterday that it will continue to talk with the union while taking steps to maintain its operations. It urged customers to use automatic-teller machines as well as online and telephone banking services if a strike occurs.
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