Sampo Corp (
Sampo, a home appliance maker, expects a listing in Hong Kong by next year, said Gary Chen (
Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (
The administration of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), as part of its second-term policies, said it was looking at allowing Taiwanese companies to sell shares locally in their China operations. The government has yet to act.
"Making it easier for China-based Taiwan companies to list in Taiwan isn't a priority," said Jerry Huang (黃顯華), commissioner of the newly created Financial Regulatory Commission. "Our priority now is regulating and governance of [locally] listed companies."
Chunghwa Picture would join Unilever NV, Royal Philips Electronics NV, HSBC Holdings Plc and other companies that have said they would like to raise money by listing their China units in the country. Share sales in China, a country of 70 million investors, usually draw far more applications than stock on offer. Stocks on the Shanghai Composite Index trade on average at 28 times earnings, compared with a multiple of 18 on the TAIEX.
Chunghwa Picture is seeking regulatory authority in China to sell at least 600 million new shares in its CPTF Optronics Ltd (
Sampo's three units in China, which make products such as refrigerators and their components, had about 1 billion yuan (US$120.8 million) in sales last year and pretax profit of 63 million yuan, the company said in February.
Sampo more than two years ago formed a marketing alliance with Qingdao Haier Group Co (
Other Taiwan companies such as First International Computer Inc (
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last