■ ProMOS raises profit forecast
ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德科技), which became Taiwan's second-largest memory-chip maker in the first quarter, said it raised its pretax profit forecast for 2004 by 33 percent because of recent product price increases. The chip maker now expects to post a pretax profit of NT$11.4 billion (US$337 million), compared with a previous projection of NT$8.6 billion, it said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The company also raised its 2004 sales forecast to NT$43.6 billion from NT$41.3 billion. It didn't give other details. ProMOS last year had a pretax profit of NT$207 million on sales of NT$25.1 billion.
■ Acer ahead in Europe
Acer Inc became the third-largest personal computer (PC) vendor with market share of 7.7 percent in the Europe, Middle East and Asia region in the third quarter, boosted by a 57.5 percent growth of shipment in the region, the company said yesterday, citing the latest statistics from research firm IDC. Hewlett-Packard Co was the No.1 vendor, enjoying 17.8 percent of market share and Dell took second place with an 11.7 percent share in the same period, the IDC figures showed. Acer remained the No.1 PC vendor in Italy in the third quarter while it enjoyed the highest growth rate of 143.4 percent in France, 65.1 percent in the Netherlands and 30.4 percent in Germany, the company said. Acer's laptop computer shipment remained in first place in Western European markets, including Germany and Italy, while desktop computer shipments saw 77.6 percent growth year-on-year, greater than the region's growth of 10.7 percent, it said.
■ Citigroup off the hook
Citigroup Inc won't be probed by Taiwan's regulators after being penalized for breaching rules in Japan, a Financial Supervisory Commission official said. "Citigroup has filed a formal explanation to us, saying it will strengthen risk controls in all its branches," said Jong Huey-jen (鍾慧貞), deputy chief at the commission's banking bureau. "Regulators have no need to immediately conduct an investigation," she said. The New York-based Citigroup was told last month to close its business catering for wealthy individuals in Japan after failing to conduct proper checks against money laundering. Regulators there also uncovered fraud in the retail bank. Citigroup told local regulators that its Japanese operation was run independently and would not affect its operation here, Jong said. While no cases of money laundering had been reported at Citigroup, it did report some inappropriate cross-selling and unclear client accounts, she said.
■ Cabinet plan blocked
The legislature in a budget screening meeting on Wednesday vetoed a Cabinet plan to sell NT$145 billion (US$4.3 billion) in state-owned shares next year. The planned sales included NT$30.3 billion of Taiwan Tobacco & Liquor Corp (台灣菸酒公司) shares, NT$30.2 billion in shares of Bank of Taiwan (台灣銀行), and NT$603 million of United Microelectronics Corp (聯電) stock. The government has previously won approval from the legislature to sell as much as NT$550 billion in state-owned shares. It has yet to do so because of improper timing and because adding to the amount would make it even harder for the market to absorb the stock.
■ NT dollar rises
In line with a stronger yen and euro against the US dollar, the New Taiwan dollar rose NT$0.018 to close at NT$33.796 against the greenback on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$811 million.
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