Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), the nation's biggest phone company, expects earnings for this year to exceed a previous projection of NT$4.34 per share, a company executive said yesterday.
"There will be ample room for us to adjust the budget proposal submitted to the Legislative Yuan recently in the company's upcoming financial forecast for 2005," said Lu Shyue-ching (
The phone company is scheduled to release its financial forecast next month.
Earlier expectations
In the submitted proposal, Chunghwa Telecom said it expected earnings this year would slide to NT$41.9 billion, or NT$4.34 a share, as the former monopoly is facing stiff competition from private companies in a market that is approaching saturation in the wake of deregulation.
Chunghwa Telecom's earnings this year are expected to decline by about 10 percent to NT$4.7 a share, said Stevie Chou (
Rising operating spending as a result of new third-generation services will start to eat into the telecom carrier's bottom line, Chou said.
The company yesterday reported audited earnings per share of NT$5.17 last year, up from NT$5.03 the previous year. Net income also inched up 2.8 percent to NT$49.9 billion for last year, up 2.8 percent from NT$48.5 billion in 2003.
Chunghwa Telecom now has 8.19 mobile users, accounting for 38 percent of Taiwan's more than 20-million population.
In light of its strong performance last year, the company decided to give shareholders a cash dividend of NT$4.7 a share, or about 90 percent of its earnings per share.
High yield
That represents a respectable yield of 7.2 percent, based on its closing price of NT$65.2 yesterday. The high yield has attracted investors seeking stable and good returns.
"We expect this dividend policy to be continued after Chunghwa Telecom's privatization," Lu said.
No timetable has been set for further share sales from the government, Lu said.
The Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunications, which holds about 65 percent of Chunghwa Telecom, plans to sell another 17 percent, or 1.45 billion shares, overseas and at home to reduce its holdings to below 50 percent by the end of this year.
To boost profits, Lu said the company plans to increase capital expenditures slightly this year to around NT$23.4 billion from NT$22.9 billion last year, mostly in its fast-growing broadband segment.
Spending on 3G facilities, meanwhile, will be trimmed slightly, to as much as NT$2 billion, he said.
Chunghwa Telecom aims to double its broadband subscribers to 6 million by the end of next year, from the current 3 million.
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