Far Eastern Group (遠東集團) formed a strategic alliance with the Bank of Chongqing (重慶銀行) on Thursday to initiate a 4 billion yuan (US$585.8 million) five-year loan from the Chinese bank to the Taiwanese business group’s subsidiary in Chongqing, China, local newspapers reported yesterday.
Far Eastern chairman Douglas Hsu (徐旭東) inked a strategic alliance agreement in Chongqing with the bank’s president Gan Weimin (甘為民), both of whom vowed to further explore the possibility of banking cooperation, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News said.
FINANCIAL SERVICES
Gan said that the partnership represents his bank’s commitment to provide financial services to the Taiwanese group’s Chongqing-based subsidiaries, including Asia Cement Corp (亞泥), Far Eastern Department Stores Ltd (遠東百貨) and Pacific Sogo Department Store (太平洋崇光百貨).
In return, Far Eastern Group will increase investment in the Chinese city, Hsu was quoted by the report as saying, without providing an exact figure.
After it branches into Shanghai and Beijing, the Bank of Chongqing promises to provide full-range financial services to Far Eastern, the report said, adding that the bank planned to further tap into Taiwanese markets as the first bank from western China in the market after both governments give their blessings through a memorandum of understanding.
The Bank of Chongqing may further sell a stake to the group’s Far Eastern International Bank (遠東商銀), which may also release a stake in itself to the Chinese bank, the report quoted Gan as saying.
SHARE SALES
The Chinese-language Commercial Times yesterday also carried a similar report about cooperation between Far Eastern Group and the Bank of Chongqing. It said Far Eastern Bank may set up a branch in Chongqing and reported its plan to buy a stake in the Chinese lender.
The share sales will be subject to regulatory approvals from both sides, the newspaper said. Gan is slated to visit Taiwan on Monday for a 10-day trip, it said.
Far Eastern Bank, which plans to raise capital of NT$10 billion (US$308 million) through private placements, will talk with and target potential Chinese investors, the reports quoted anonymous bank executives as saying.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) would not produce its most advanced technologies in the US next year, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. Kuo made the comment during an appearance at the legislature, hours after the chipmaker announced that it would invest an additional US$100 billion to expand its manufacturing operations in the US. Asked by Taiwan People’s Party Legislator-at-large Chang Chi-kai (張啟楷) if TSMC would allow its most advanced technologies, the yet-to-be-released 2-nanometer and 1.6-nanometer processes, to go to the US in the near term, Kuo denied it. TSMC recently opened its first US factory, which produces 4-nanometer
GREAT SUCCESS: Republican Senator Todd Young expressed surprise at Trump’s comments and said he expects the administration to keep the program running US lawmakers who helped secure billions of dollars in subsidies for domestic semiconductor manufacturing rejected US President Donald Trump’s call to revoke the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, signaling that any repeal effort in the US Congress would fall short. US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who negotiated the law, on Wednesday said that Trump’s demand would fail, while a top Republican proponent, US Senator Todd Young, expressed surprise at the president’s comments and said he expects the administration to keep the program running. The CHIPS Act is “essential for America leading the world in tech, leading the world in AI [artificial
REACTIONS: While most analysts were positive about TSMC’s investment, one said the US expansion could disrupt the company’s supply-demand balance Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) new US$100 billion investment in the US would exert a positive effect on the chipmaker’s revenue in the medium term on the back of booming artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from US chip designers, an International Data Corp (IDC) analyst said yesterday. “This is good for TSMC in terms of business expansion, as its major clients for advanced chips are US chip designers,” IDC senior semiconductor research manager Galen Zeng (曾冠瑋) said by telephone yesterday. “Besides, those US companies all consider supply chain resilience a business imperative,” Zeng said. That meant local supply would
Servers that might contain artificial intelligence (AI)-powering Nvidia Corp chips shipped from the US to Singapore ended up in Malaysia, but their actual final destination remains a mystery, Singaporean Minister for Home Affairs and Law K Shanmugam said yesterday. The US is cracking down on exports of advanced semiconductors to China, seeking to retain a competitive edge over the technology. However, Bloomberg News reported in late January that US officials were probing whether Chinese AI firm DeepSeek (深度求索) bought advanced Nvidia semiconductors through third parties in Singapore, skirting Washington’s restrictions. Shanmugam said the route of the chips emerged in the course of an
RSS