(Bloomberg) -- Taiwan’s Taishin Financial Holding Co. has raised its offer for Shin Kong Financial Holding Co. in a move to fend off a competing bid from rival suitor CTBC Financial Holding Co. as the takeover battle for the island’s bank continues.
Taishin increased its offer on Wednesday to a bid that values Shin Kong at NT$14.18 per share, or about NT$243 billion ($7.6 billion), 25% higher than its original stock swap proposal. Under the revised merger bid, Taishin will boost the swap ratio to 0.672 per Shin Kong share, up from 0.6022 previously, while it will also add 0.175 special shares for each Shin Kong share.
The revised offer represents a 5% premium to Shin Kong’s last close of NT$13.5 on Wednesday. However, it is still lower than CTBC’s offer of NT$14.55 in cash and stock that aimed for a controlling stake in Shin Kong.
“It is not fair to compare Taishin’s figures to CTBC’s,” Welch Lin, Taishin’s president, told a press briefing in Taipei. “CTBC’s public acquisition is for a 51% stake in Shin Kong, while Taishin’s offer is a 100% share swap deal.”
The bidding war for Shin Kong, Taiwan’s fifth-largest financial conglomerate, emerged in late August when Taishin and Shin Kong announced their mutually agreed merger. CTBC intervened with a higher offer a day later.
Taiwanese regulators are seeking to boost the financial industry and diversify the economy away from its tech-heavy concentration. Any deal for Shin Kong would be the first financial holding transaction in Taiwan since Fubon Financial Holding Co. acquired Jih Sun Financial Holdings Co. in 2022.
While CTBC is yet to respond to Taishin’s revised proposal, the firm has filed additional material requested by the island’s Financial Supervisory Commission regarding its offer for Shin Kong and the regulator could make the decision on its pursuit no later than Sept. 24, Taipei-based Central News Agency reported on Wednesday citing the authority.
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