Executive leaves Citigroup
Citigroup NA yesterday confirmed that its country corporate officer Eric Chen (陳聖德) has resigned to "pursue other opportunities."
In its press statement, the bank "thanked Chen [for his] contribution for the past 20 years," but failed to elaborate what motivated Chen's resignation.
Working his last day at the world's biggest financial company yesterday, Chen was not available for comments as of press time.
Last week, the Chinese-language media reported that Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信銀金控) is keen on recruiting Chen. But sources yesterday said that Chen hasn't made his final decision yet since Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) is also interested in him.
However, Chinatrust chairman Jeffrey Koo (辜濂松) yesterday in Beijing told the media that the holding company, which owns the nation's largest credit card issuer, is longing to expand its market share "with the aid of experienced executives from foreign banks." Neither did Koo confirm that Chen will work for Chinatrust.
CMC raises disc price
CMC Magnetics Corp (中環), the world's second-largest maker of CD-Rs (recordable compact discs), announced yesterday that it will raise CD-R prices by five percent, or US$0.01, to between US$0.19 and US$0.20 per disc.
The new prices take effective this month.
CMC attributed the price hikes to high demand in Europe and the company's decision to shift part of its production to more profitable recordable DVD (digital versatile disk).
CMC's entry in the DVD disc market comes as Japanese manufacturers of home movie players are phasing out videotape systems in favor of a single disc.
Mustek reports revenue gain
Mustek Ltd (萬宇科技), the fourth overseas company to list on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, reported yesterday that it achieved sales revenue of 1.4 billion South African rand (NT$5.7 billion) last year, a 14 percent increase on the 2001 figure of 1.24 billion rand (NT$4.99 billion).
Mustek, the largest supplier of computer products in southern Africa, issued 20 million Taiwan depositary receipts on the local exchange on Jan. 20 of this year at a cost of NT$18 each. Yesterday the company closed at NT$19 per share.
Infineon surpasses Hynix
Infineon Technologies AG of Germany has replaced South Korea's Hynix Semiconductor Inc to become the world's third-largest maker of computer-memory chips, a market researcher said.
"Infineon's sales were boosted by higher average selling prices and increased licensing fees," said iSuppli Corp analyst Nam Hyung Kim in a report on the company's Web site.
Samsung Electronics Co of South Korea, the world's largest memory chipmaker, and Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) were the only rivals that posted profit last year.
Those companies were the first to make high-speed semiconductors that accelerate the operation of personal computers using the latest processors from Intel Corp.
Nanya displaced Japan's Elpida Memory Inc, a venture between NEC Corp and Hitachi Ltd, to become the world's fifth largest memory chipmaker last year, iSuppli said.
NT dollar closes lower
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday traded lower against its US counterpart, dropping NT$0.013 to close at NT$34.759 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
Turnover was US$257 million, compared with last Thursday's US$364 million.
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