Taipei has rejected an application by a Hong Kong consortium to buy American International Group’s Taiwan unit Nan Shan Life due to insufficient documentation, an official said Thursday.
The consortium of Primus Financial Holdings Ltd. and China Strategic Holdings Ltd. last month agreed to buy Nan Shan for 2.15 billion US dollars from struggling AIG.
“We rejected the application last week because some needed papers are missing,” said Emile Chang, deputy executive secretary of Taiwan’s Investment Commission. Chang said AIG, as the seller in the planned transaction, needed to help file the application.
Among the documents the commission would like to see is one explaining China Strategic’s plan, revealed this week, to sell 30 percent in Nan Shan to Taiwanese conglomerate Chinatrust Financial, he said.
In return, China Strategic will get a 9.95 percent stake in Chinatrust, which lost out last month in a bid to acquire Nan Shan.
With AFP Taipei, Nov 19, 2009
