Fubon denies asset transfer
Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控), Taiwan's second-largest financial services provider, said it has no plan to transfer business or assets into International Bank of Asia after its takes over the Hong Kong lender.
The statement was made to clarify an article in the South China Morning Post on Sept. 10, said Fubon, which did not elaborate. Fubon signed an agreement on Sept. 8 to buy Arab Banking Corp's 55 percent stake in International Bank and will make a general offer for its remaining shares, paving the way for a full takeover.
"Fubon does not have any intention to inject any material assets or business into International Bank or its subsidiaries, or to make any significant changes to the existing businesses of International Bank and its subsidiaries after the completion of the offer," the Taiwan lender said in a statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Sept. 15.
Microchip makers to slow down
The head of the world's leading contract microchip maker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) expects a semiconductor-industry slowdown in 2005 as Chinese producers come onstream and over-supply again becomes a problem.
"Our chairman [Morris Chang (張忠謀)] is basically restating his earlier assertion that the semiconductor industry tends to experience a cycle of `boom and bust' every five years. 2005 appears to be a year of `bust,'" TSMC spokesman Tseng Jin-hao (曾晉皓) said.
The expected 2005 slowdown would follow growth in revenue terms of 11 percent for the semiconductor industry this year and 17 percent next year, according to Chang.
Co-brand credit card issued
Taishin Commercial Bank (台新銀行), the nation's second-largest credit-card issuer, yesterday launched a co-brand card with the National Cultural and Arts Foundation, aiming to sponsor the nation's art programs.
Taishin will donate NT$2 to the foundation for every NT$1,000 spending charged to the bank's co-brand card, said Taishin senior vice president Daniel Tsai (蔡孟峰) at a press conference yesterday.
Tsai added that discounts, ranging between 5 percent to 50 percent, will be offered to cardholders who attend art programs presented by over 20 artistic groups.
Taishin has issued a total of 3.9 million credit cards and hopes to raise the figure to over 4 million by the year's end.
Recruitment campaign launched
Six of China's biggest state-owned enterprises have jointly launched an ambitious recruitment campaign for senior managers with residents in Hong Kong and Taiwan as their targets.
China's Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), which was set up in April, has a total of seven ranking posts that need to be filled, the official China Daily reported on Tuesday.
The posts are being offered by the China United Telecommunications Corp, the China General Technology (Group) Holding Ltd, the China Aluminum Corporation, the China National Foreign Trade Transportation (Group) Corp, the China Energy Conservation Investment Corp as well as the State Development and Investment Corp.
The new recruitment campaign is said to be an attempt by Chinese authorities to reform the personnel system in state-run companies and introduce fresh blood from overseas.
NT dollar trades higher
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday traded higher against its US counterpart, rising NT$0.044 to close at NT$34.103 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
Turnover was US$655 million.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six