Yuan link may be deregulated
Executive Yuan Spokesman Shieh Jhy-wey (謝志偉) said yesterday that the government has not ruled out the possibility of deregulating currency exchange between the New Taiwan dollar and the Chinese yuan by May 20 as long as legal revisions are finalized by the legislature by then.
The central bank had proposed a two-phrase process to introduce a mechanism to make Taiwan and Chinese currencies convertible with each other, under which the first phrase allows only local banks to buy yuan and a two-way exchange will be adopted in the second phrase when local banks collect enough yuan from Chinese tourists coming to Taiwan to sell to the public.
The incoming Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government has set a schedule for the opening in July, but Shieh said that service may start before May 20 if Article 38 of the Act Governing Relations Between Peoples of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (兩岸人民關係條例) is amended before then.
Food company seeks approval
Uni-President Enterprises Corp (統一企業), the nation’s biggest food company, is seeking the approval of shareholders to raise as much as NT$40 billion (US$1.3 billion) through equity and bond sales.
The company may raise up to NT$12 billion by selling bonds convertible into shares, Tainan-based Uni-President said in a stock exchange filing yesterday.
Uni-President may sell as many as 300 million shares in a private placement and a further 300 million shares in the form of depositary receipts overseas, according to separate statements.
Powerchip to sell bonds
The Hsinchu-based computer memory chipmaker Powerchip plans to use the proceeds from a bonds sale to buy raw materials overseas, it said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
The bond issuance will be discussed during the annual shareholder’s meeting scheduled for May 30, Powerchip said.
Taiwanese company wins bid
A Taiwanese construction company has won selection to overhaul Ukraine’s top soccer stadium in preparation for the 2012 European Championships, Korrespondent magazine reported on Tuesday.
Taipei-headquartered Archasia Design Group Ltd (瀚亞聯合建築師事務所) will perform major repairs to Kiev’s troubled Olympisky Stadium, a structure whose reconstruction has been stalled for years due to a land ownership dispute in the Ukrainian capital.
Archasia Design defeated 14 competitors for the Olympisky Stadium repair contract, including bidders from Austria, China, England, Germany and Ukraine. Members of the planning committee voted 21 out of 24 for Archasia’s low bid.
The cost of the winning offer was not made public. Ukrainian sports media estimates have placed the price of converting the 94,000-seat Olympisky Stadium into a first-class venue at between US$10 million and US$50 million.
China orders larger reserves
China has ordered its banks to set aside more reserves.
The amount of money that banks are required to hold in reserve will rise by 0.5 percentage points to 16 percent of their deposits, effective April 25, the central bank said yesterday.
The government has repeatedly nudged up the reserve ratio over the past two years to curb rapid growth in lending. Regulators worry that runaway spending could lead to a financial crisis.
NT dollar gains on greenback
The New Taiwan rose against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, advancing NT$0.011 to close at NT$30.255.
US$1.04 billion changed hands during the day’s trading.
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