Taiwan's Chinatrust puts Mega Fin. stake under trust

TAIPEI, March 28 (Reuters) - Taiwan's top credit card issuer Chinatrust Financial (2891.TW) and its subsidiaries will place the 1.23 billion Mega Financial (2886.TW) shares it owns under the trust of the state-owned Bank of Taiwan.

Chinatrust did not say how much the transaction would be worth in the statement released late on Friday, but Reuters calculations based on Mega Financial's last transacted price of T$12.50 values it at T$15.4 billion ($456 million).

"We were initially supposed to sell the shares by June this year, but with the current economic climate, selling so many shares could have an adverse effect on Mega's share price," Chinatrust Chief Financial Officer Hsu Miao-chiu told Reuters.

"Nobody knows when the market will pick up, and looking at the large number of shares we've got, it's best we put them in trust with somebody else who will be able to sell them at a more appropriate time," she said.

Chinatrust Financial said in the statement the shares represent a 5.35 percent stake in Mega Financial.

The Bank of Taiwan would have up to 2012 to sell the Mega Financial shares, and Hsu said such an arrangement would minimise any impact on shareholder interest and maintain the stability of Mega Financial's share price.

Mega Financial officials were not immediately available for comment.

Shares of Chinatrust Financial closed 5.5 percent higher at T$13.40 on Friday, while Mega Financial advanced 0.81 percent to close at T$12.50. Both shares outpaced the benchmark TAIEX share index's 0.08 percent climb.

(Reporting by Kelvin Soh; Editing by Ben Tan)