State-run First Financial Holding Co (第一金控) yesterday refused to say whether chairman Joseph Tsai (蔡慶年) has offered to resign over a troubled syndicated loan, saying that losses could be minimized if the Ministry of National Defense presses ahead with a project to build minesweepers.
“We do not have authorization to comment on the issue, except to reiterate that losses would fall from NT$12.5 billion to NT$4.5 billion [US$413.5 million to US$148.9 million] if the ministry continues to pursue the project,” a First Financial communications official said by telephone.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wang Ding-yu (王定宇) yesterday told reporters that Tsai had offered to step down and that Premier William Lai (賴清德) was mulling the issue.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
First Commercial Bank (第一銀行), the holding company’s main subsidiary and the lead bank of a NT$15.4 billion syndicated loan to Ching Fu Shipbuilding Co (慶富造船), late on Wednesday said in a statement that the loan had defaulted due to the shipbuilder’s failure to honor its terms.
Kaohsiung-based Ching Fu has been unable to procure NT$310 million required to keep debt negotiations alive and contest injunctions, the statement said.
“The creditor banks had no choice, but to declare the loan in default, with maximum total losses of NT$12.5 billion for nine state-run banks,” the statement said.
The other creditors are Land Bank of Taiwan (土地銀行), Taiwan Cooperative Bank (合庫銀行), Bank of Taiwan (臺灣銀行), Hua Nan Commercial Bank (華南銀行), Chang Hwa Commercial Bank (彰化銀行), Taiwan Business Bank (台灣企銀), Agricultural Bank of Taiwan (農業金庫) and the Export-Import Bank of the Republic of China (中國輸出入銀行).
The banks’ losses range from NT$300 million to NT$5.8 billion, the statement said.
The banks have requested that the Kaohsiung District Court freeze Ching Fu’s assets, raising concern that the shipbuilder might go bankrupt.
Ching Fu has a navy contract worth NT$35.8 billion to build six minesweepers, but its solvency has been called into question after the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office named it in a financial fraud investigation.
Kaohsiung District Court Chief Judge Yeh Wen-po (葉文博) yesterday confirmed that the court has received legal documents from First Commercial Bank requesting the sequestration of the shipbuilder’s assets, but declined to provide additional information.
Prosecutors yesterday summoned for questioning Ching Fu chairman Chen Ching-nan (陳慶男); his wife, Chen Lu Chao-hsia (陳盧昭霞); and his son Chen Wei-chih (陳偉志), who serve as the shipbuilder’s director and vice chairman respectively.
The questioning was focused on whether Ching Fu used one or more offshore subsidiaries to make fraudulent loan applications, head prosecutor Ko Kuang-hui (葛光輝) said.
Prosecutors have asked the three to report to the Kaohsiung Police Department’s Cianjhen Precinct daily or risk detainment as flight risks, Ko said.
The office would continue to closely monitor Ching Fu’s operations, including the minesweeper project, he added.
The ministry is required to allow Ching Fu to work on the ships until it has reason to believe the shipbuilder is unable to finance its debts, sources said.
At that point, the ministry will likely dissolve its contract with Ching Fu, and it has contingency plans to transfer production to another contractor or reopen bidding, they added.
SEPARATE: The MAC rebutted Beijing’s claim that Taiwan is China’s province, asserting that UN Resolution 2758 neither mentions Taiwan nor grants the PRC authority over it The “status quo” of democratic Taiwan and autocratic China not belonging to each other has long been recognized by the international community, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday in its rebuttal of Beijing’s claim that Taiwan can only be represented in the UN as “Taiwan, Province of China.” Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) yesterday at a news conference of the third session at the 14th National People’s Congress said that Taiwan can only be referred to as “Taiwan, Province of China” at the UN. Taiwan is an inseparable part of Chinese territory, which is not only history but
CROSSED A LINE: While entertainers working in China have made pro-China statements before, this time it seriously affected the nation’s security and interests, a source said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) late on Saturday night condemned the comments of Taiwanese entertainers who reposted Chinese statements denigrating Taiwan’s sovereignty. The nation’s cross-strait affairs authority issued the statement after several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑), Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜) and Michelle Chen (陳妍希), on Friday and Saturday shared on their respective Sina Weibo (微博) accounts a post by state broadcaster China Central Television. The post showed an image of a map of Taiwan along with the five stars of the Chinese flag, and the message: “Taiwan is never a country. It never was and never will be.” The post followed remarks
NATIONAL SECURITY: The Chinese influencer shared multiple videos on social media in which she claimed Taiwan is a part of China and supported its annexation Freedom of speech does not allow comments by Chinese residents in Taiwan that compromise national security or social stability, the nation’s top officials said yesterday, after the National Immigration Agency (NIA) revoked the residency permit of a Chinese influencer who published videos advocating China annexing Taiwan by force. Taiwan welcomes all foreigners to settle here and make families so long as they “love the land and people of Taiwan,” Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) told lawmakers during a plenary session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. The public power of the government must be asserted when necessary and the Ministry of
Proposed amendments would forbid the use of all personal electronic devices during school hours in high schools and below, starting from the next school year in August, the Ministry of Education said on Monday. The Regulations on the Use of Mobile Devices at Educational Facilities up to High Schools (高級中等以下學校校園行動載具使用原則) state that mobile devices — defined as mobile phones, laptops, tablets, smartwatches or other wearables — should be turned off at school. The changes would stipulate that use of such devices during class is forbidden, and the devices should be handed to a teacher or the school for safekeeping. The amendments also say
RSS