Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corp (台灣菸酒公司), the nation's largest alcoholic-beverage producer, will hold a company-wide poll today to let employees voice their opinion about the government-set privatization plan, the company said in a statement yesterday.
Taiwan Tobacco was spun off from the Taiwan Tobacco and Alcohol Monopoly Bureau (菸酒公賣局) in July 2002, and the government is hoping to finalize its privatization plan by the end of this year.
Viewing the privatization plan as a way to strengthen the company's competitiveness, Taiwan Tobacco's management submitted a proposal to the Cabinet last April, highlighting their plans for better corporate management by bringing in strategic partners and selling shares to private investors.
But the company has not yet received a greenlight from the Cabinet, as members of the com-pany's labor union have protested several times against such plans, the statement said.
The company has been facing stiff competition from foreign rivals, particularly those from China, since Taiwan joined the WTO on Jan. 1, 2002.
Company chairman Morgan Hwang (黃營杉) told lawmakers earlier this month that the company's market share had been decreasing significantly.
He pointed out that its rice wine market share had declined to 8 percent of the nation's total sales of white liquor, and that the counterfeit "Long Life" cigarettes from China already held a 10-percent share of the local market.
To overcome the bottleneck in its privatization push, the company decided to hold a companywide vote and mapped out four possible directions for employees to vote on, the statement said.
According to the statement, the choices are: to bring in strategic partners and sell shares to complete the privatization plan; to sell the company's shares and gradually privatize the company; to maintain the company as a state-run entity while undertaking corporate restructuring or to split up into four state-run units -- tobacco, beverage, beer and distribution.
Employees will be able to cast their ballots between 9am and 3pm, the statement said, and the results will be made public tomorrow.
The company said privatization is a means to an end but not the goal. While the government decided to privatize all state-run enterprises about a decade ago, time has changed and it is necessary for all parties to re-think the policy, the statement said.
With an approval rating of just two percent, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte might be the world’s most unpopular leader, according to pollsters. Protests greeted her rise to power 29 months ago, and have marked her entire term — joined by assorted scandals, investigations, controversies and a surge in gang violence. The 63-year-old is the target of a dozen probes, including for her alleged failure to declare gifts of luxury jewels and watches, a scandal inevitably dubbed “Rolexgate.” She is also under the microscope for a two-week undeclared absence for nose surgery — which she insists was medical, not cosmetic — and is
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
CHIP DUTIES: TSMC said it voiced its concerns to Washington about tariffs, telling the US commerce department that it wants ‘fair treatment’ to protect its competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reiterated robust business prospects for this year as strong artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from Nvidia Corp and other customers would absorb the impacts of US tariffs. “The impact of tariffs would be indirect, as the custom tax is the importers’ responsibility, not the exporters,” TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at the chipmaker’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Hsinchu City. TSMC’s business could be affected if people become reluctant to buy electronics due to inflated prices, Wei said. In addition, the chipmaker has voiced its concern to the US Department of Commerce
RSS