Practice Analysis of the Taiwan IPO by Foreign Entities

過去數年的台灣，由於國民黨執政、金融海嘯、資本市場全球化及經濟全球化等全球性競爭，直接促使兩岸結構性大改變，大三通的大趨勢已然降臨。其中，資本連結與相通發展更是兩岸經濟共榮發展的關鍵環節。加諸台灣資本市場的國際化，以吸引全球資金及台商的加入，進而加速台灣的經濟成長及發展，已是不容忽視的發展趨勢。為因應此一情勢，本研究目的即在探討外國企業來台第一上市(櫃)的申請實務及潛在回台上市(櫃)台商之屬性及滿意度。經採券商專家訪談法、問卷調查法及個案研究法等多元研究方法進行探討後，主要研究結果如下。 首先，經由券商專家訪談後，主要結果為：宜放寬申請上市櫃主體所在地，可考量取消股票十元面額規定，為避免迂迴上市的問題，建議考量放寬迂迴上市的認定標準，可以海外經營比重較高者為準，酌予開放。主辦承銷商考量在有配套情況下加以分級，外國企業股權結構方面，建議主管機關可考慮中資比例實質低於法律規定三成的優質公司，或以實際國籍的股東身份計算持股比例，以避免錯過優質的回台公司。 其次，針對外國企業之屬性及滿意度調查結果方面，其主要結果為：在廠商屬性方面發現，受查樣本主要係來自中國大陸地區，以獨立創業之中型企業為主、產業別之分佈不但多元且甚為均衡。在滿意度方面發現，對台灣相近資本市場中介機構及證券交易所收費與台灣資本市場再融資制度之滿意度甚高，而且經考量全盤資本市場管制規範後，外國企業來台上市(櫃)之意願強度極強。 最後，個案分析後發現，台商回台掛牌之前置準備工作較為繁雜，要做好事前之準備，加重輔導券商及會計師事務所等中介機構之責任。另外，主要潛在問題方面為，對大陸的經濟管制政策以及央行外匯管制措施，均造成台商回台掛牌意願的負面影響，故宜在政策考量時，能做較為通盤之規劃，以利台商之回台掛牌，加速台灣之經濟成長。Practice analysis of the Taiwan IPO by foreign entities Summary In the past few years, a tendency toward The Three Links has come, which results in a fundamental change in the relationship between China and Taiwan because of Kuomintang’s (KMT) winning the elections, financial crisis, globalization of capital market, and globalization economy and global competition. Especially, the key of the economy co-development between China and Taiwan are the linkage of capital and resources. It is an important development trend that internationalization of the Taiwan capital market will attract global capital and overseas Taiwanese to join the Taiwan market, and speed up the economic growth and development in Taiwan. The object of this report is to investigate the application practices of foreign enterprises to seek IPO in Taiwan stock exchange markets and survey the attributes and satisfactions of the foreign enterprises owned by overseas Taiwanese. This report was prepared by interviewing securities corporations, surveying with questionnaires and cases studies, and the conclusion are as follow. First of all, the major recommendations that we obtained from the interview with securities corporations are: 1. to relax the restrictions on locations of a listing entity; 2. to revoke the rule of NT$10 par value per common share; 3. to revise the identification standards of indirect listing (e.g. if a foreign enterprise has more offshore operation comparing its business in Taiwan, the enterprise should not be considered as pursuing an indirect listing in Taiwan); 4. to classify the securities underwriters pursuant to proper standards; 5. the competent authorities may consider inviting those high-quality companies in which Chinese-shareholders own less than 30% interests, or revise the calculation of Chinese-shareholders shareholding percentage by looking through the ultimate individual shareholders’ nationality. Secondly, with regard to the survey and investigation on the attributes and satisfactions of foreign enterprises, we found that: 1. most of the sample enterprises are from China and most of them are middle size companies in various industries; 2. the sample enterprises are satisfied with the Taiwan capital market intermediate institutions, reasonable fees of TSEC and the refinance regime in Taiwan capital market; 3. after an overall consideration to the regulations of Taiwan capital market, the foreign enterprises are strongly willing to have their stocks be listed on stock exchange markets in Taiwan. Finally, on the basis of the cases studies, we found that the pre-listing process for foreign enterprises is complicated, so the foreign enterprises shall be well prepared and intermediate institution such as securities underwriters and CPA firms should take more responsibilities in the IPO process. In addition, the China government’s restrictions on economy and foreign exchange may hold Chinese enterprises back from seeking IPO in Taiwan. Therefore, the Taiwan government shall have an overall planning to streamline the IPO process for foreign enterprises (especially, those owned by overseas Taiwanese) so as to speed up the economic growth in Taiwan