Lippo may invest in Taiwan bank

Lippo may invest in Taiwan bank

TAIPEI (AFP): Indonesia's Lippo Group is seeking to take a 15- percent stake in a new Taiwanese bank with paid-in capital of T$10 billion (US$390.6 million), the Economic Daily News said yesterday.

The paper said that the Indonesian financial conglomerate planned to hold a 15-percent share in the new bank, tentatively named Global Commercial Bank, but major shareholders of Global so far had no intention of reducing their stakes.

The island's Chung Shing Textile, China Petrochemical Development Corp. and BES Engineering Corp. will share majority stakes in the planned bank, mainly organized by the Taipei-based Core Pacific Group with interest in textiles, construction and securities, it said.

A Core Pacific official said the new bank will apply to the Finance Ministry for approval before October 12.

Sixteen business groups have joined the local financial industry to compete with 17 profitable state-run banks and 61 branches of 37 foreign banks here since the government ended a 40-year monopoly on banking operations in mid-1990.

Under Finance Ministry rules, a minimum of T$10 billion in paid-in capital is required for a new private bank, and foreign holdings in a new bank cannot exceed 15 percent.