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Taipei 101 Owner Expects Breakeven In 2010 On China Tourists

TAIPEI -(Dow Jones)- Taipei Financial Center Corp., which owns Taipei 101, Taiwan's tallest building, expects to break even in 2010 as spending by Chinese tourists boosts revenue at its shopping mall, Michael Chia-Hao Liu, the company's assistant vice president, said Monday.

The company expects its pretax loss to narrow to NT$100 million this year from around NT$900 million in 2008, Liu said. On a monthly basis, the company broke even in April and June.

"Chinese visitors help greatly as they are big buyers of luxury items," Liu said. "If this continues, we should be able to break even next year."

Chinese visitors have spent about NT$120 million using UnionPay cards at Taipei 101's shopping mall since Taiwan began accepting the cards in early August, he said. UnionPay is China's dominant electronic payment network, similar to Visa and Mastercard.

Taipei Financial Center expects its accumulated pretax profit for the next three years to total NT$600 million and hit NT$1 billion for the next five years, he said.

The company, 37% owned by instant-noodle maker Ting Hsin (Cayman Islands) Holding Corp., which also owns Tingyi (Cayman Islands) Holding Corp. (0322.HK), expects the occupancy rate of its office space to increase to 90% in 2010 from the current 80%, he added.

BNP Paribas S.A. (BNP.FR), which has around 180 employees in Taiwan, plans to move into Taipei 101 in early 2010, two people familiar with the matter said, declining to be named because the deal hasn't been made public.

Liu said several major Chinese banks have also inquired about the availability of office space in the building.

-By Perris Lee Choon Siong, Dow Jones Newswires; +8862-2502-2557; perris.lee@ dowjones.com

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