(20 April 2007 – Taiwan) An international financial services firm is circling Taiwanese bank China United Trust & Investment Co (CUTIC) and could invest up to US$302 million into the bank which is running at a loss.Taiwan’s financial regulator said it had received interest from a foreign firm and that a due diligence process on CUTIC would be completed within the next 10 days.
The regulator would not name the firm but Taiwan’s Economic Daily reported it as being Canada’s AGF Management.
CUTIC posted a loss of T$1.6 billion in the first nine months of 2006, which followed a T$3.4 billion loss in 2005 and T$1.6 billion in 2004.
International interest in Taiwanese banks has returned over the past year due to the market recovering from the country’s credit card losses and the impact this has had on banking stocks which are now some of the cheapest in Asia.