Going up! TAIEX prepares to move into Taipei 101

March 12, 2005

The TAIEX is going sky high! Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp. formally signed lease papers in late February to move into the tallest building in the world, the Taipei Financial Center. Now, with the TAIEX weighted index around its highest level in nearly ten months, not only is Taiwan's main stock index on the rise, so is the TAIEX trading floor itself.

TSEC will occupy over 4,000 ping (Taiwan's standard measure of floor space, equivalent approximately to 36 square feet) of floor space on three floors from the 9th floor to the 12th floor. Its current facilities cover just 2,600 ping. It will also lease 70 ping on the 3rd floor to provide an investors reading room, press room and mail room.

The stock exchange company will begin handing out contracts to interior designers in March and expects to move in in the second half of the year. TSCE estimates that it will spend around NTD 150 million on interior design and new furniture and equipment.

As one of the TFC's shareholders, TSCE is reported to have struck a special deal on its lease rate. However, normal lease rates average NTD 3,200 per ping per month. Other shareholders that are reported to be considering a move to the TFC include such big domestic names as China Development Industrial Bank, Chinatrust Commercial Bank, Cathay Life Insurance and Taishin International Bank.

When the skyscraper, also known as Taipei 101, opened formally on the last day of 2004, it had already achieved an occupancy rate of 33%. The building, rising 508 meters above the Taipei metropolis, provides a total of 58,000 ping in office space.

While the TSEC is the first tenant to publicly announce its move to the world's tallest tower, the first company to take up residence there will be Credit Suisse Group's Winterthur Life Taiwan, which will move its operations to the building's 51st floor in the middle of April.

Chairperson of the TSEC, Wu Nai-jen, declaring that the TFC's world-class facilities make it a core piece of infrastructure in Taiwan's drive to become an Asia Pacific financial center, has called on other top-grade domestic and international organizations to join it in moving on up.

(Central News Agency, United Daily News, Taipei Times)

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