The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday fined Hong Kong-based Capital Target Ltd (CTL, 建群), a major shareholder of Jih Sun Financial Holding Co (日盛金控), NT$25 million (US$898,569) for its faulty beneficiary disclosure and ordered CTL to offload part of its stake in Jih Sun within a year.
CTL holds a 24.09 percent stake in Jih Sun and the commission would allow the company to retain a 5 percent stake, Banking Bureau Deputy Director Sherri Chuang (莊秀媛) told a videoconference, adding that its regulations require any shareholder with more than a 5 percent stake in a local financial conglomerate to reveal its beneficiaries.
The commission would not be concerned if CTL sells its shares to Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控), which has gained majority control of Jih Sun, or other buyers, but it must sell the 19.09 percent stake within a year, she added.
Photo: Kelson Wang, Taipei Times
The commission started a probe into CTL’s shareholder structure in July last year amid market speculation that the firm is owned by Chinese tycoon Xiao Jianhua (肖建華), head of the Chinese conglomerate Tomorrow Holding Ltd (明天控股).
CTL at the time told the commission that its beneficiary was Derek Chen (陳銘達), the same information it disclosed in 2009 when it applied to invest in Jih Sun.
Derek Chen, a Taiwanese, said he has no business relationship with Xiao and that he co-owned CTL with two female investors, surnamed Chen (陳) and Li (黎), with two of the three having formerly served as board members of Jih Sun.
However, the commission found their information suspicious, Chuang said.
“We talked to Derek Chen and the two other investors in person or by videoconference, and found that their stories did not match,” she said, referring to questions such as why they formed a joint investment and where their funds came from.
CTL is wholly owned by Hong Kong-based Best Fortune Investments Ltd, which is 40 percent owned by Derek Chen and 60 percent by another overseas company coheld by Derek Chen and his female partners, Chuang said.
However, the three failed to present fund flow records to prove that the money used to invest in Jih Sun came from their own pockets, Chuang said.
“Without any proof, we found their stories unbelievable,” she said.
The commission said it concluded that the three were not CTL’s real beneficiaries and decided to fine the firm NT$25 million, half of the maximum fine of NT$50 million.
It is the first time that the commission has punished a company for faulty beneficiary disclosures since the regulations were tightened last year.
Restaurant chain Din Tai Fung (鼎泰豐) today announced it is to close 14 stores in northern China, completely exiting the market by the end of October. Beijing Hengtaifeng Catering Co (北京恆泰豐餐飲), which operates Din Tai Fung restaurants in northern China, said its 20-year operating license expires this year. As the board was unable to reach a consensus on continuing operations, its 14 restaurants in the region are to close by Oct. 31, it said. The company apologized for the inconvenience and disappointment the news would cause among its customers, and said it would provide compensation for its workers. “We continue to be optimistic about
EXPANDING: The European Commission has contributed 5 billion euros in state aid to TSMC’s 12-inch wafer fab in Dresden, Germany, which broke ground on Tuesday Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) on Saturday said that it has received a total of NT$62.5 billion (US$1.95 billion) in subsidies from China and Japan since 2022. In the first half of this year, TSMC received NT$7.96 billion in subsidies from China and Japan after receiving about NT$47.55 billion last year and obtaining NT$7.05 billion in 2022, financial data compiled by the world’s largest contract chipmaker showed. The company, which makes about 90 percent of the world’s high-end semiconductors, said the subsidies were used to finance its investments in Kumamoto, Japan, and Nanjing, China. TSMC owns a 12-inch wafer fab in
STRATEGIC SHIFT: Diversifying away from the volatile flat-panel industry, AUO aims to boost sales contribution from non-panel business to half of total revenue by 2027 AUO Corp (友達) yesterday said it has agreed to sell its idled manufacturing facility and land in Tainan to Micron Technology Inc for NT$7.4 billion (US$231.8 million) as the company shifts strategy to reduce the impact from the boom-and-bust flat-panel display industry. The company expects to book NT$4.17 billion in disposal gains from the sale, it said in a Taiwan Stock Exchange filing. The Tainan factory produced color filters used in monitors, notebook computers and flat-panel TVs before being shut down last year, as AUO sought to optimize its asset utilization. The company has been striving to diversify and broaden its business
Micron Technology Inc has reportedly set its sights on two facilities owned by flat-panel maker AUO Corp (友達) after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) recently clinched a deal to buy a facility and equipment from Innolux Corp (群創), another major flat-panel maker. Micron, the world’s third-largest memorychip maker, is expected to purchase two AUO plants in Tainan to expand its advanced chip packaging and testing services and high-bandwidth memory production, local media reports said. The two plants were shut down in August last year and AUO is seeking to dispose of the facilities, the reports said. They are expected to cost Micron