Taipei, Sept. 17 (CNA) Fubon Financial Holding Co. (富邦金), one of Taiwan's leading financial holding companies, said Thursday that the company is evaluating many options for possible acquisitions in a bid to expand to compete with its counterparts in the Asian market. In a filing posted on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, Fubon Financial said that the company needs some time to further dip into potential acquisition deals before finalizing any of them. In Taiwan, which has been saturated by a great number of financial institutions, financial authorities have urged Taiwanese financial firms to go beyond the crowded local market and penetrate the regional market when seeking mergers and acquisitions. The Fubon statement came after foreign business wires reported a day earlier that the Taiwanese company is likely to buy a 39 percent stake in Indonesia-based Panin Bank from Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ). Panin Bank ranks as the ninth-largest bank in Indonesia in terms of total assets. Fubon Financial said it would not comment on any specific deal. The reports cited sources close to the deal as saying that ANZ has been inviting preliminary bids and that Fubon Financial is on a short-list of bidders. The reports added that as Fubon has emerged as a serious contender in the bidding, it is expected to spend US$614 million to acquire the stake. On its website, Panin Bank said that the bank -- a merger of Bank Kemakmuran, Bank Industri Djaja Indonesia and Bank Industri and Dagang Indonesia -- was set up in 1971 and secured a license as a foreign exchange bank in 1972. The bank said that in 1982, it was the first bank in Indonesia to launch a listing on the Indonesian Stock Exchange. As of the end of 2014, Panin Bank boasted about US$12 billion in total assets and US$1.6 billion in paid-in capital, while the bank posted some US$180 million in profit last year. In addition to ANZ, PT Panin Financial Tbk holds a 46.04 stake in Panin Bank as the largest shareholder, while the remaining stake is owned by retail and institutional investors in the equity market. If Fubon acquires the Bank Panin stake as the reports have claimed, the investment will be the largest deal in which a Taiwanese institution has bought a stake in the Indonesian banking industry. Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank is the banking flagship of Fubon Financial. (By Frances Huang)ENDITEM/J
Taiwan's Fubon Financial announced yesterday it is considering further acquisitions, in a bid to expand and compete with its counterparts in the Asian market. This follows our report that it is considering buying a 39% stake in Indonesia's Panin Bank from ANZ. Taiwan is presently saturated by a huge number of financial institutions, which has led to its authorities pushing its financial firms to go beyond the crowded local market and seek regional mergers and acquisitions.