■ Chinatrust bids for Lippo
Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金控), Taiwan's fourth-biggest financial services company, and Export and Industry Bank of the Philippines said they may bid to buy 52 percent of PT Lippo Bank, Indonesia's 11th-largest lender.
Yesterday was the deadline for investors to submit bids for the stake, which is valued at 918 billion rupiah (US$109 million) at the current market price. The winning bidder will be named at the end of the month.
"We already have some operations in Southeast Asia and we believe we have more expertise than other Taiwanese banks to run the business in the region," said Lin Shiaw-ping (林孝平), Chinatrust Financial's chief strategic officer.
Indonesia is selling stakes in banks and other distressed assets to raise funds to cover a budget deficit estimated at 24.4 trillion rupiah (US$2.9 billion) this year, or 1.2 percent of the country's GDP.
■ Fitch positive about banks
The outlook for the nation's banking sector is becoming more positive, after several years of deterioration, Fitch Ratings said in a statement yesterday.
"Taiwan's banking sector is expected to see further progress in its restructuring efforts that were launched in 2002 when many, though not all, banks took large charges to cover the cost of non-performing loan [NPL] sales and charge-offs," Fitch said.
In addition to writing off NPLs, Taiwanese banks have been rebuilding their capital base, improving their formerly very unsophisticated credit culture and diversifying away from traditional corporate loans toward consumer banking.
Despite these positive achievements, the international rating agency said challenges remain for Taiwanese banks. "As banks have come into line with regulatory guidelines concerning asset quality, there is less urgency in addressing remaining bad debts. There is also uncertainty over the source of capital support for weak banks," it said.
With a fragmented market in their home market, further consolidation appears inevitable for Taiwanese banks and many of them will target overseas expansion in the Greater China, Fitch said.
■ New medicine shop opens
Beijing Tongrentang Typhoon Co (北京同仁堂太豐公司), a Taiwan-based offshoot of a Chinese company that made medicine for the emperor, yesterday opened its first shop in Taipei, tapping growing demand for traditional remedies.
The Taiwanese-owned licensee plans to set up 60 shops in Taiwan within three years, Gloria Yang, the manager of the store, said in a telephone interview. The shop's products include herbs imported from China and herbal wines made in Taiwan according to Beijing Tongrentang's recipes, she said.
"Taiwan's health market is mature now, presenting opportunities that allow us to set up our first flagship," Yang said.
■ AU Optronics sales rise
Taiwan's largest maker of panels for flat-screen displays, AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), yesterday reported net sales for last year of NT$104.8 billion, up 38.5 percent from the previous year.
Shipments of large-size panels at the company totaled 11.85 million last year, up 42.4 percent from 2002, and medium-sized panel shipments increased by 135.7 percent to 21.43 million units over the same period, according to company statistics.
■ NT dollar strengthens
The New Taiwan dollar continued to gain ground against its US counterpart, edging up NT$0.021 to close at NT$33.809 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
Turnover was US$1.089 billion.
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
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained