October 1, 2004 Board of Directors Approve Official Merger Date Asia Securities and Yuanta Core Pacific Securities (Yuanta) held their respective Board of Directors Meeting on September 30, 2004 to approve the merger date for the two securities firms.The merger will be carried out in the form of the absorption of one company by the other, with Yuanta

Core Pacific Securities as the surviving company and Asia Securities as the absorbed company.

Each Yuanta share will be exchanged for 2.3 shares of Asia Securities on October 24, 2004, the base date for merger.Yuanta will grant 145,362,591 new shares at NT$10 per share in addition to the original outstanding shares of 2,546,864,761. The new total outstanding shares will be 2,692,227,352.

The expanded securities firm will not only boast Yuanta’s leading market share but also expand the network branches from 96 to 107, ranking it number one among securities firms in Taiwan.