Section III Related Party Transactions |
| Article 14 | When a public company engages in any acquisition or disposal of assets from or to a related party, in addition to ensuring that the necessary resolutions are adopted and the reasonableness of the transaction terms is appraised, if the transaction amount reaches 10 percent or more of the company's total assets, the company shall also obtain an appraisal report from a professional appraiser or a CPA's opinion in compliance with the provisions of the preceding Section and this Section.
The calculation of the transaction amount referred to in the preceding paragraph shall be made in accordance with Article 12 herein.
When judging whether a transaction counterparty is a related party, in addition to legal formalities, the substance of the relationship shall also be considered.
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| Article 15 | When a public company intends to acquire or dispose of real property or right-of-use assets thereof from or to a related party, or when it intends to acquire or dispose of assets other than real property or right-of-use assets thereof from or to a related party and the transaction amount reaches 20 percent or more of paid-in capital, 10 percent or more of the company's total assets, or NT$300 million or more, except in trading of domestic government bonds or bonds under repurchase and resale agreements, or subscription or redemption of money market funds issued by domestic securities investment trust enterprises, the company may not proceed to enter into a transaction contract or make a payment until the following matters have been approved by the board of directors and recognized by the supervisors:
- The purpose, necessity and anticipated benefit of the acquisition or disposal of assets.
- The reason for choosing the related party as a transaction counterparty.
- With respect to the acquisition of real property or right-of-use assets thereof from a related party, information regarding appraisal of the reasonableness of the preliminary transaction terms in accordance with Article 16 and Article 17.
- The date and price at which the related party originally acquired the real property, the original transaction counterparty, and that transaction counterparty's relationship to the company and the related party.
- Monthly cash flow forecasts for the year commencing from the anticipated month of signing of the contract, and evaluation of the necessity of the transaction, and reasonableness of the funds utilization.
- An appraisal report from a professional appraiser or a CPA's opinion obtained in compliance with the preceding article.
- Restrictive covenants and other important stipulations associated with the transaction.
With respect to the types of transactions listed below, when to be conducted between a public company and its parent or subsidiaries, or between its subsidiaries in which it directly or indirectly holds 100 percent of the issued shares or authorized capital, the company's board of directors may pursuant to Article 7, paragraph 1, subparagraph 3 delegate the board chairman to decide such matters when the transaction is within a certain amount and have the decisions subsequently submitted to and ratified by the next board of directors meeting:
- Acquisition or disposal of equipment or right-of-use assets thereof held for business use.
- Acquisition or disposal of real property right-of-use assets held for business use.
Where the position of independent director has been created in accordance with the provisions of the Act, when a matter is submitted for discussion by the board of directors pursuant to paragraph 1, the board of directors shall take into full consideration each independent director's opinions. If an independent director objects to or expresses reservations about any matter, it shall be recorded in the minutes of the board of directors meeting.
Where an audit committee has been established in accordance with the provisions of the Act, the matters for which paragraph 1 requires recognition by the supervisors shall first be approved by one-half or more of all audit committee members and then submitted to the board of directors for a resolution, and shall be subject to mutatis mutandis application of Article 6, paragraphs 4 and 5.
If a public company or a subsidiary thereof that is not a domestic public company will have a transaction set out in paragraph 1 and the transaction amount will reach 10 percent or more of the public company’s total assets, the public company shall submit the materials in all the subparagraphs of paragraph 1 to the shareholders meeting for approval before the transaction contract may be entered into and any payment made. However, this restriction does not apply to transactions between the public company and its parent company or subsidiaries or between its subsidiaries.
The calculation of the transaction amounts referred to in paragraph 1 and the preceding paragraph shall be made in accordance with Article 31, paragraph 2 herein, and "within the preceding year" as used herein refers to the year preceding the date of occurrence of the current transaction. Items that have been approved by the shareholders meeting or board of directors and recognized by the supervisors need not be counted toward the transaction amount.
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| Article 16 | A public company that acquires real property or right-of-use assets thereof from a related party shall evaluate the reasonableness of the transaction costs by the following means:
- Based upon the related party's transaction price plus necessary interest on funding and the costs to be duly borne by the buyer. "Necessary interest on funding" is imputed as the weighted average interest rate on borrowing in the year the company purchases the property; provided, it may not be higher than the maximum non-financial industry lending rate announced by the Ministry of Finance.
- Total loan value appraisal from a financial institution where the related party has previously created a mortgage on the property as security for a loan; provided, the actual cumulative amount loaned by the financial institution shall have been 70 percent or more of the financial institution's appraised loan value of the property and the period of the loan shall have been 1 year or more. However, this shall not apply where the financial institution is a related party of one of the transaction counterparties.
Where land and structures thereupon are combined as a single property purchased or leased in one transaction, the transaction costs for the land and the structures may be separately appraised in accordance with either of the means listed in the preceding paragraph.
A public company that acquires real property or right-of-use assets thereof from a related party and appraises the cost of the real property or right-of-use assets thereof in accordance with the preceding two paragraphs shall also engage a CPA to check the appraisal and render a specific opinion.
Where a public company acquires real property or right-of-use assets thereof from a related party and one of the following circumstances exists, the acquisition shall be conducted in accordance with the preceding article, and the preceding three paragraphs do not apply:
- The related party acquired the real property or right-of-use assets thereof through inheritance or as a gift.
- More than 5 years will have elapsed from the time the related party signed the contract to obtain the real property or right-of-use assets thereof to the signing date for the current transaction.
- The real property is acquired through signing of a joint development contract with the related party, or through engaging a related party to build real property, either on the company's own land or on rented land.
- The real property right-of-use assets for business use are acquired by the public company with its parent or subsidiaries, or by its subsidiaries in which it directly or indirectly holds 100 percent of the issued shares or authorized capital.
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| Article 17 | When the results of a public company's appraisal conducted in accordance with paragraph 1 and paragraph 2 of the preceding Article are uniformly lower than the transaction price, the matter shall be handled in compliance with Article 18. However, where the following circumstances exist, objective evidence has been submitted and specific opinions on reasonableness have been obtained from a professional real property appraiser and a CPA have been obtained, this restriction shall not apply:
- Where the related party acquired undeveloped land or leased land for development, it may submit proof of compliance with one of the following conditions:
- Where undeveloped land is appraised in accordance with the means in the preceding Article, and structures according to the related party's construction cost plus reasonable construction profit are valued in excess of the actual transaction price. The "Reasonable construction profit" shall be deemed the average gross operating profit margin of the related party's construction division over the most recent 3 years or the gross profit margin for the construction industry for the most recent period as announced by the Ministry of Finance, whichever is lower.
- Completed transactions by unrelated parties within the preceding year involving other floors of the same property or neighboring or closely valued parcels of land, where the land area and transaction terms are similar after calculation of reasonable price discrepancies in floor or area land prices in accordance with standard property market sale or leasing practices.
- Where a public company acquiring real property, or obtaining real property right-of-use assets through leasing, from a related party provides evidence that the terms of the transaction are similar to the terms of completed transactions involving neighboring or closely valued parcels of land of a similar size by unrelated parties within the preceding year.
Completed transactions involving neighboring or closely valued parcels of land in the preceding paragraph in principle refers to parcels on the same or an adjacent block and within a distance of no more than 500 meters or parcels close in publicly announced current value; transactions involving similarly sized parcels in principle refers to transactions completed by unrelated parties for parcels with a land area of no less than 50 percent of the property in the planned transaction; within the preceding year refers to the year preceding the date of occurrence of the acquisition of the real property or obtainment of the right-of-use assets thereof.
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| Article 18 | Where a public company acquires real property or right-of-use assets thereof from a related party and the results of appraisals conducted in accordance with the preceding two articles are uniformly lower than the transaction price, the following steps shall be taken:
- A special reserve shall be set aside in accordance with Article 41, paragraph 1 of the Act against the difference between the real property transaction price and the appraised cost, and may not be distributed or used for capital increase or issuance of bonus shares. Where a public company uses the equity method to account for its investment in another company, then the special reserve called for under Article 41, paragraph of the Act shall be set aside pro rata in a proportion consistent with the share of public company's equity stake in the other company.
- Supervisors shall comply with Article 218 of the Company Act. Where an audit committee has been established in accordance with the provisions of the Act, the preceding part of this subparagraph shall apply mutatis mutandis to the independent director members of the audit committee.
- Actions taken pursuant to the preceding two subparagraphs shall be reported to a shareholders meeting, and the details of the transaction shall be disclosed in the annual report and any investment prospectus.
A public company that has set aside a special reserve under the preceding paragraph may not utilize the special reserve until it has recognized a loss on decline in market value of the assets it purchased or leased at a premium, or they have been disposed of, or the leasing contract has been terminated, or adequate compensation has been made, or the status quo ante has been restored, or there is other evidence confirming that there was nothing unreasonable about the transaction, and the FSC has given its consent.
When a public company obtains real property or right-of-use assets thereof from a related party, it shall also comply with the preceding two paragraphs if there is other evidence indicating that the acquisition was not an arms length transaction.
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