■ UMC to issue dividend
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world's second-largest supplier of made-to-order chips, said yesterday that it would issue a stock dividend of NT$0.75 per share this year, assuming the proposal is approved at the company's annual meeting on June 1.
During a board meeting yesterday, UMC approved its business report for last year, saying the company's revenue last year was NT$84.86 billion (US$2.54 billion), and after-tax income came in at NT$14.02 billion, or NT$0.92 per share.
The company plans to issue some 111.12 million new shares to distribute as employee bonuses and proposes to set up an audit committee in order to enhance its corporate governance.
UMC may reduce the number of seats on its board of directors from 12 to nine, the company said. It also proposes to invite three independent directors to sit on the restructured board.
These proposals also await approval at the June meeting.
Separately, UMC said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp that it had bought 37 equipment units worth NT$2.44 billion manufactured by ASML Holding NV, Europe's largest maker of chip equipment.
■ Flat-panel maker seeks big loan
Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (中華映管), the nation's No. 3 flat-panel display maker, is seeking up to NT$33 billion in loans to expand production, said James Wu (巫俊毅), assistant vice president of the company's finance division.
A group comprised of nearly 10 banks including Chinatrust Commercial Bank (中國信託) is expected to arrange the transaction, he said.
The company will use the loan to fund a NT$90 billion expansion of a project to produce thin film transistor liquid crystal displays (TFT-LCD) in Taoyuan County. Construction started last October and is expected to be completed in 2006. The project is expected to bring in an additional sales of US$10 billion annually, Wu said.
"We expect sales from TFT-LCD monitors to rise by 40 percent this year to NT$80 billion," he said.
■ More Chinese equity in store
The government plans to relax investment controls on foreign companies in which Chinese companies have stakes to promote bilateral economic ties, a report said yesterday.
The Mainland Affairs Council, whose rules currently state that no more than 20 percent of a company investing here can be owned by Chinese companies, said that it hoped to raise the ceiling to 50 percent, a Chinese-language newspaper said, citing a council official.
The change in rules was expected to become effective after the election, the paper said.
Like other foreign firms here, companies with Chinese stakes would be permitted to set up branches, subsidiaries and representative offices in selected industries, the newspaper said.
Council officials were not immediately available for comment.
The move was seen as an effort to reduce the country's growing economic reliance on China.
■ Yuan-denominated futures set
Bank of Taiwan (台灣銀行) is offering Taiwanese manufacturers in China futures contracts denominated in yuan to help protect against possible appreciation of the Chinese currency, a Chinese-language newspaper said.
The bank began offering the service through its offshore banking unit two days ago, the paper said.
■ NT dollar falls
The New Taiwan dollar moved down against its US counterpart yesterday, declining NT$0.085 to close at NT$33.472 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
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