Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控) yesterday secured a merger agreement with Shin Kong Financial Holding Co (新光金控) via share swaps, despite lingering uncertainty over a hostile takeover bid by CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控) on the open market.
Bank-focused Taishin Financial and life insurance-focused Shin Kong Financial announced the agreement, although it still needs Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) approval and a green light at their respective shareholders’ meetings, while CTBC could press ahead with the buyout attempt.
“The consolidation would be carried out fully via share swaps and would benefit both Taishin and Shin Kong,” Taishin Financial chief financial officer Carol Lai (賴昭吟) said at a news conference at the Taiwan Stock Exchange in Taipei last night.
Photo: Wu Hsin-tien, Taipei Times
Taishin Financial plans to issue new ordinary shares for Shin Kong Financial shares, with a share swap ratio of 0.6022 Taishin Financial shares for one Shin Kong Financial share, Lai said.
The companies would put the proposal to their shareholders on Oct. 9 and then set a date for the merger after receiving regulatory approval, she said.
The two conglomerates have little overlapping businesses and the merger would make the combined entity Taiwan’s fourth-largest financial service provider based on assets, Lai said.
Shin Kong Financial, a laggard among its peers in terms of profitability, has expressed interest in merging with other conglomerates, and Taishin Financial was believed to be the most likely buyer, given that its chairman, Thomas Wu (吳東亮), is the younger brother of former Shin Kong Financial chairman Eugene Wu (吳東進).
Taishin Financial has pledged to retain all Shin Kong employees after the merger, which it said would bolster their mutual banking, life insurance and securities businesses.
CTBC Financial, which has deeper pockets, on Tuesday said that it aims to grow into a large international player if it could acquire Shin Kong Financial on the open market.
The company would become Taiwan’s largest financial service provider if it were to acquire Shin Kong Financial, it said.
The FSC has sought to stay neutral by repeating that all acquisition deals must be conducted in compliance with legal requirements without harming market order or stability, and do not compromise the interests and rights of shareholders.
‘AL SILICON ISLAND’: Tainan is the birthplace of AMD chief executive officer Lisa Su, while TSMC is building a new fab to produce 2-nanometer chips in Kaohsiung Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) has chosen to locate its new research-and-development (R&D) centers in Tainan and Kaohsiung, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. The new facilities are part of a NT$8.64 billion (US$270.5 million) project to advance its development of cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and silicon photonics. AMD’s latest investment would help to develop Taiwan into an “AI silicon island,” the ministry said in a statement after Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) met AMD representatives led by David Wang (王啟尚), senior vice president of AMD’s graphics processing unit technologies and engineering, in Taipei yesterday. AMD did
As monsoon rains were about to break over Pakistan, 14-year-old Shamila and her 13-year-old sister Amina were married off in exchange for money, a decision their parents made to help the family survive the threat of floods. “I was happy to hear I was getting married... I thought my life would become easier,” Shamila said after her wedding to a man twice her age in hope of a more prosperous life. “But I have nothing more, and with the rain, I fear I will have even less, if that is possible.” Pakistan’s high rate of marriages for underage girls had been inching
LATE MOVE: If a deal goes ahead, upending Shin Kong Financial’s plans, CTBC Financial would be the financial conglomerate in Taiwan with the biggest assets CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金) yesterday said it is seeking regulatory approval to buy Shin Kong Financial Co (新光金) on the open market, casting a last-minute shadow over Taishin Financial Holding Co’s (台新金) bid. CTBC Financial, Taiwan’s third-largest financial conglomerate by assets, made known its intention in a stock exchange filing, just two days before Taishin Financial and Shin Kong Financial were to announce their merger through a share swap scheme. “We will supply more details over the buyout plan after the Financial Supervisory Commission [FSC] gives the go-ahead,” CTBC Financial said in the filing. The acquisition attempt, if realized, would enable CTBC
Japan has decided to apply foreign trade regulations to chipmaking equipment as part of its efforts to secure stable supply chains, the Japanese Ministry of Finance said yesterday. Foreign investors are now required to give prior notice when conducting direct investment in equipment tied to chipmaking, including when acquiring a 1 percent or bigger stake in a listed company or buying shares in an unlisted company, the ministry said in a statement. The move also aims to address the risk of technology leakage and keep commercial technologies from being used for military purposes, it said. Other products added to the list of