Shin Kong Shareholders Approve Merger With Smaller Rival

Shin Kong Financial Holding Co. secured shareholder approval for its merger with Taishin Financial Holding Co., creating the fourth-biggest financial conglomerate in Taiwan.

The results were announced Wednesday after both companies held extraordinary shareholder meetings. Some 92.8% of Taishin’s shareholder approved the merger with Shin Kong Financial, while Shin Kong received approval of 72.3%.

The combination will create a firm with NT$8.3 trillion ($259 billion) in assets, with businesses spanning from insurance to banking. Talks of a merger between Shin Kong and Taishin, founded by brothers in the Wu family, had heated up in recent years as Shin Kong struggled to lift itself out of a series of crises.

Taishin has a market value of NT$236 billion ($7.3 billion), bigger than Shin Kong’s NT$208 billion ($6.4 billion).

With the approval, they will soon send an application to Financial Supervisory Commission, the industry’s regulator. Regulators earlier had opposed a move by CTBC Financial Holding Co. to acquire Shin Kong.

Taiwanese regulators are trying to boost the financial industry and make the economy less concentrated on the technology sector. A Shin Kong deal would be the first financial holding transaction in Taiwan since Fubon Financial Holding Co. acquired Jih Sun Financial Holdings Co. in 2022.

If regulators clear the merger, Shin Kong’s struggling life insurance company could benefit from a Taishin’s capital injection, the group will boost its market share in banking and brokerage as well.

Photograph: Signage at a Shin Kong Financial Holding Co. bank branch in Taipei, Taiwan, on Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024. Photo credit: An Rong Xu/Bloomberg

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Copyright 2024 Bloomberg.

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Mergers & Acquisitions

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