none

A Study on the Development Strategies of the Bank of Kaohsiung ABSTRACT There has been a trend toward financial deregulation and globalization since 1980. During this period, both Britain and France started the system of privatization of state-owned firms. And Taiwan, R.O.C. also kept up with the trend to construct the framework of economical deregulation and globalization. Meanwhile, being against the global trend fearlessly and courageously, the Kaohsiung city government, to the contrary, established the Bank of Kaohsiung (B.O.K.) to bring prosperity to residents. However, under the big pressure of the global tendency, the Kaohsiung city government finally changed its policy to implement privatization and completed all the tasks on Sep. 27, 1999. Through the establishment of privatization of state-owned firms, the B.O.K. modulate development strategies, progress enterprise renovation and upgrade the operation performance to face the increasingly strict challenges and the tendency of bank consolidation. However, privatization is not a panacea for the sustainable development of the B.O.K. Therefore, this study aims to discuss the development strategies of the B.O.K. from three aspects of employees, employer and the government, to achieve win-win-win results. The results and suggestions of this study are as follows: I. The Operation Performance The operation performance after privatization of the B.O.K. still acts as a role of state-owned bank of the Kaohsiung city government. Basically speaking, the quantities of the municipal loans of the city government will comply with the performances of the bank¡¦s assets, liabilities, and incomes. The higher the former one is, the more the latter ones are. II. The Industrial Competitive Position In late 2004, the market shares of assets and liabilities of the B.O.K. didn¡¦t exceed 1%. Besides, the scale of B.O.K. fell behind the other firms. Its operation performance was fair. Except for the growth rate, the capital adequacy, asset quality, profitability, liquidity ability, and interest rate sensibility respectively are in high-middle rankings among the domestic banks. And the competitive position of deposit, loan, and profit-risk fell in the area of the third quadrant. The major rivals against the B.O.K. on business and consolidation strategies will be Kao Shin Commercial Bank, Taiwan Cooperative Bank and First Commercial Bank. But the potential rivals against the B.O.K. on consolidation strategy include Chinese Bank, Chinfon Commercial Bank, Hwatai Bank, Cota Commercial Bank, Lucky Bank, Taitung Business Bank, Taipei Bank, China Development Industrial Bank. III. Employee Satisfaction The survey of questionnaires shows that the employees in the B.O.K. recognize the business principles of this enterprise and feel satisfied with the payoff, but express non-trust on executive officers and unfairness on personnel system. With the impact of privatization and bank consolidation, the B.O.K. Union adopted the strategy of law-compliance to complete establishing employment regulation, signing collective agreement and electing worker director, which are considered three pillars of the Union, for protecting the working rights. IV. The Competitive Strategies and Operation Policies The overall application on competitive strategies is not excellent. Especially, the implement in development strategy is the worst. The priority that the B.O.K. should do is to establish clear developmental strategies to upgrade its competitive potential through the following steps. A. Risk Management: Comply with the regulation of Basel II to enhance the ability of managing risk. B. Finance Management: Improve assets quality to increase the bank¡¦s profitability. C. Business Management: Develop diversified businesses on the basis of municipal loan. D. Human Resource: Plan proper manpower placement and hold in-service training to raise the degree of employee satisfaction. E. Interior Procedure: Implement responsibility center management and enhance financial information system. F. Developmental Perspective: Found the basis of ¡§small is beautiful, small is professional, and small is strong¡¨, and develop into the biggest financial holding company in southern Taiwan in the future. G. Organization Restructure: Consider establishing corporate banking group, consumer banking group and wealth management group. In Kaohsiung area, the B.O.K. should focus on the plan of establishing region center, and mini-individual bank with specific task outside Kaohsiung area. V. Proposal Evaluation for development strategies of the B.O.K. Considering the recognition over competitive developmental strategies of the B.O.K. from three aspects including labors, employer and the government, the study offers the following suggestions under the limitation for implement. A. The best strategy of the B.O.K. for sustainable management is to adopt the principle of ¡§small is beautiful, small is professional, and small is strong¡¨, and to expand business across the whole nation in the future. B. If the Kaohsiung city government adopts the strategy of capital withdraw, the proposal of selling to domestic general public should be the first priority to be taken into consideration. C. If the Kaohsiung city government adopts the strategy of niche, the proposal of consolidation with varied small financial holding company or being merged by non-banking financial holding company will gain the best benefits. D. Not launch the proposal of increasing capital to avoid the public¡¦s anxiety. VI. Intrinsic Value Evaluation for the B.O.K. Based on the evaluation criteria of bias, accuracy, explanatory, and investment performance, the study shows that model D of discounted free cash flow (FCF-D) ranks number one, model B of Edwards-Bell-Ohlson (EBO-B), model B of price/earning ratios (PE-B) rank number two and three respectively. The rest six ones are not recommended. Also the study suggests that the B.O.K. should adopt FCF-D to evaluate its intrinsic value. It is estimated that the intrinsic value per stock is NT$22.24 on May 3, 2005.