Mega Financial Holding Co (兆豐金), Taiwan’s biggest financial services company by assets, said it intends to invest in smaller city banks in China as cross-strait ties improve.
“We will go where there are Taiwanese businesspeople and companies so we can offer our services, as it will be much harder to do local business,” Grace Lin (林瑞雲), a spokeswoman for Mega Financial said in an interview.
The Taipei-based company is targeting smaller city commercial banks and rural cooperatives in large cities such as Shanghai and Guangzhou, Lin said.
Mega is preparing for when Taiwan and China sign an agreement on cross-strait banking investments, Lin said.
The two are poised to sign agreements to allow investments in each other’s banking, insurance, securities and futures industries, after agreeing on a broad framework on financial services cooperation.
Mega isn’t in talks to buy a stake in First Sino Bank (華一銀), Lin said, denying a Economic Daily News report that Mega and SinoPac Financial Holdings Co (永豐金) were competing for a stake in Shanghai- based First Sino.
Shanghai Pudong Development Bank Co (上海浦東發展銀行) has 30 percent of First Sino. Other investors include Hong Kong-registered Lotus Worldwide Ltd and Wing Hang Bank Ltd (永亨銀行).
SinoPac has not asked its board of directors or regulators for approval to invest in a Chinese lender, it said in an exchange filing yesterday.
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