Taipei, Nov. 2, 2012 (CENS)--To stay competitive, Taiwan’s leading syndicated lenders, including Bank of Taiwan (BOT) and Mega International Commercial Bank, have offered rates below 2% as underwriters of some big loans recently.

BOT has reportedly extended loans of NT$9 billion (US$300 million) to Yuen Foong Yu Paper Manufacturing Co. (YFY) and NT$2.5 billion (US$83.33 million) to Tonyi Industrial Corp. at rates of about 1.6% per annum. YFY is the largest paper-making company in Taiwan and Tonyi is an affiliate of Uni-President Group, a Taiwan-based food giant.

Recently Mega led to underwrite a syndicated loan of NT$12 billion (US$400 million) to Taiwan Cement Corp. with rate also at around 1.6%; while Chang Hwa Bank led a syndicated loan of NT$4.5 billion (US$150 million) to Gloria Material Technology Corp. with rate of 1.8%. Gloria is the only specialty steel manufacturer in Taiwan.

However First Commercial Bank lately announced to lend NT$2.7 billion (US$90 million) to Hung Hua Construction Co. at rate of over 2% for a term of 3.5 years.

Insiders said that Taiwan’s syndicated lenders can achieve reasonable profits at rates 1.8%-2%. In the first three quarters of this year BOT exceeded Mega to become Taiwan’s largest syndicated lender.

(by Judy Li)