■ Taishin in model portfolio
Citigroup Inc's Smith Barney unit is adding Taishin Financial Holdings Co (台新金控) to its model portfolio of Asian stocks outside Japan. The broker is removing AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) on concern about slower earnings growth. Smith Barney will also add Telekom Malaysia Bhd, Southeast Asia's second largest phone company, to replace Maxis Communications Bhd, Malaysia's biggest mobile phone company. Taishin Financial, which controls Taishin International Bank (台新銀行), two weeks ago reported a 64 percent climb in first-half earnings. Shares of AU Optronics, the world's third largest maker of flat-panel displays used in computers and televisions, fell 15 percent in the past three months amid oversupply concerns. "We are not believers that it will get better in techland soon," Markus Rosgen, Smith Barney's Asian strategist, wrote in the broker's daily note. "Banks remain our second-largest overweight in the region just behind telecoms."
■ TSMC eyes Mapper Lithography
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufac-turing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is considering investing in Mapper Lithogra-phy BV, a closely held Dutch chip-machine developer and competitor to ASML Holding NV, Het Finan-cieele Dagblad said, citing TSMC executive Burn Lin (林本堅). "We are currently in talks with Mapper about sponsoring of the development of their chip ma-chine," the paper quoted Lin as saying. Lin is director at TSMC's unit that develops new chip production technologies, the report said. ASML is a supplier to TSMC, the world's biggest supplier of made-to-order chips. TSMC will use ASML's machines until chip production is expected to switch to a new technology in about 2007, the newspaper said. Based in Delft, Netherlands, Mapper Lithography's technology "is on the right track" for use in chip manufacturing after 2007, Lin said.
■ Share sales face restrictions
The government plans to impose more restrictions on companies holding public share sales to build confidence in the stock market, a Chinese-language business daily reported, citing Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp Chairman Wu Nai-jen (吳乃仁). The move comes after Procomp Informatics Co (博達科技) and other companies failed to explain their finances to investors before defaulting and posting surprise losses, the newspaper report said. The Taiwan Stock Exchange will look more closely at management teams of companies that plan to sell shares to the public, in addition to requiring information such as profit and capitalization, the paper reported. Regulators on Sept. 7 restricted trading of Infodisc Technology Co's (訊碟科技) shares because of the company's finances.
■ Mango promotion succeeds
Fresh mangoes from Taiwan have been well received in Japan and South Korea after promotion campaigns by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA, 外貿協會), officials said yesterday. Just over 505 tons of
■ NT dollar trades higher
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday traded higher against its US counterpart, rising NT$0.018 to close at NT$33.907 on the Taiwan foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$392 million.
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ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)