■ SinoPac posts profit
SinoPac Holdings Co (建華金控), Taiwan's 10th-largest financial holding firm, announced unaudited profit of NT$2.97 billion (US$88 million) in the year's first half.
The profit is 51 percent of SinoPac's full-year earnings forecast of NT$5.79 billion, the company said in a statement. In 2003, SinoPac reported an audited first-half profit of NT$1.7 billion.
SinoPac said last November it hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc as a financial adviser to find merger partners.
■ Quanta borrows for new plant
Quanta Display Inc (廣輝電子), a flat-panel display maker controlled by Taiwan's biggest notebook computer producer, borrowed NT$30 billion (US$890 million) to set up a new factory.
Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金控), Hua Nan Financial Holdings Co (華南金控) and 24 other banks agreed today to provide the loan, the company said in a statement.
Taiwanese flat-panel makers such as AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) and Taoyuan-based Quanta Display are expanding to meet demand. Global sales of liquid crystal displays are expected to rise 73 percent this year because of higher-than-expected demand for flat-screen televisions, researcher DisplaySearch said.
■ Via's share plan nixed
Taiwan's Financial Supervisory Commission rejected Via Techno-logies Inc's (威盛電子) plan to issue 81.9 million shares as bonus stock for employees and shareholder dividends, a Chinese-language newspaper said, citing unidentified sources at the commission.
Via Technologies proposed to grant 19 million new shares to its workers, which the commission called a disproportionately large number compared with the 62.9 million earmarked as dividends for shareholders, the report said.
The company said it will submit supporting documents to the commission to explain its employee bonus and shareholder dividend policies, the report said.
Via Technologies, Taiwan's biggest maker of chipsets for personal computers, had a loss last year of NT$1.7 billion (US$50 million), or NT$1.3 a share.
■ Citibank taps China manager
Citibank yesterday announced the appointment of Benny Chen (陳邦仁) as country business manager responsible for the lender's global consumer business in China, it said in a statement.
The change will take effect from August 1, after Richard Stanley's move to Singapore as head of global corporate and investment banking for ASEAN.
Chen is currently a senior executive vice president and retail banking group general manager at Chinatrust Commercial Bank (中國信託銀行).
■ Marvell resumes TSMC orders
Marvell Technology Group Ltd has made new orders with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Singapore's Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd (特許), a Chinese-language newspaper said, citing an unidentified overseas investor source.
Bermuda-based Marvell switched to TSMC and Chartered from China's Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (中芯國際集成電路) because it wasn't satisfied with the Chinese company's production quality, the Taipei-based paper said.
■ NT dollar down
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday traded lower against its US counterpart, declining NT$0.025 to close at NT$33.724 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$460 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