China Development Financial Holding Corp (CDFHC, 中華開發金控) is to auction off its headquarters in Taipei next year at the earliest, the firm said yesterday.
The company’s investment arm, CDIB Capital Group (中華開發資本), on Monday decided to sell the property via public auction.
CDIB Capital, previously known as China Development Industrial Bank (中華開發工銀), has owned the property since 1985.
As the financial conglomerate, along with its units China Life Insurance Co (中國人壽) and KGI Bank (凱基銀行), are to relocate to a new building in Taipei by the end of this year, they needed to decide how to deal with the old headquarters quickly, CDFHC spokesman Richard Chang (張立筌) told the Taipei Times by telephone.
“We had some ideas, such as redeveloping the 16-floor commercial building by participating in urban renewal projects or putting it up for rent, as we wanted to continue owning the property,” Chang said.
“However, given that the two proposals had more uncertainties and would take more time to materialize, we decided to just sell the building,” he said.
Asked if the company made the decision after the Financial Supervisory Commission ordered it to complete its full acquisition of China Life before June 13, 2022, Chang said that the company was looking for the most effective option to dispose of its real estate.
He declined to say how much the property is expected to fetch and how the proceeds would be used.
The building, which sits on a 750 ping (2,479m2) plot and has total floor space of about 8,000 ping, is expected to be sold at least for NT$8 billion (US$266.3 million), as it is located on Nanjing E Road in Songshan District (松山), the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported, citing local real-estate analyst Chiu Tai-hsuan (邱太煊).
China Life, which is 35 percent held by CDFHC, would be able to bid at the auction, but if the insurer wins the bid, CDFHC said that it would not be able to recognize the gains due to accounting rules.
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