The world's highest skyscraper, Taipei 101, yesterday welcomed the Bayer Group as its first tenant and is preparing for its second tenant, Swiss insurer Winter Life, to move in later this month.
Bayer, which is Germany's second-largest chemical and drug maker, will locate its Taiwan headquarters on the tower building's 53rd and 54th floors. The new office space accommodates about 230 of Bayer Taiwan's employees.
"We like this building very much, and believe it is the safest place to work, with the high-tech infrastructure and design," said Elmar Stachels, chief executive officer of Bayer's Greater China region, during the moving-in ceremony yesterday.
PHOTO: CHANG CHIA-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
With a five-year lease, Bayer believes the move will help it attract domestic and international businesses, as well as bolster its business in Taiwan, Stachels said.
Future tenants
Winter Life will relocate its Taiwan branch to Taipei 101 next Monday, said Harace Lin (
Other future tenants include Peoples' King International Co, D.B. Zwirn Advisors Taiwan and the Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp (TSE). The TSE is currently the largest tenant, holding the 9th to the 12th floors. It will move in by year's end.
Now that the first tenant has commenced operations in the building, more potential customers waiting on the sidelines will be more interested in exploring leasing options, said Calvin Wang (王治平), managing director of Jones Lang LaSalle International Property Consultants, the leading leasing agent for the skyscraper.
Currently, the occupancy rate at Taipei 101 is still about 35 percent for the 58,000-ping office space, but Wang is confident that the building will be 60 percent to 70 percent full by the end of the year, and next to full by the end of next year.
"Many companies have shown strong interest in making Taipei 101 their address these days, [giving it] prestige like the Empire State Building in New York City," Wang said.
As for the safety concerns of some prospective tenants following several accidents during the tower's construction, Wang said doubts had been dissolved now that the building had withstood several major earthquakes. As a result, current tenants were more interested in renting higher levels of the building.
Strict controls on access would also give confidence to customers, Wang said.
Floor pass
Taipei 101 utilizes the Visitor Access Kiosk System developed by Siemens AG, which enables visitors to key in the floor or company they want to visit.
With confirmation by the tenant, the visitor receives a pass allowing entry through a security door.
Merida Industry Co (美利達) has seen signs of recovery in the US and European markets this year, as customers are gradually depleting their inventories, the bicycle maker told shareholders yesterday. Given robust growth in new orders at its Taiwanese factory, coupled with its subsidiaries’ improving performance, Merida said it remains confident about the bicycle market’s prospects and expects steady growth in its core business this year. CAUTION ON CHINA However, the company must handle the Chinese market with great caution, as sales of road bikes there have declined significantly, affecting its revenue and profitability, Merida said in a statement, adding that it would
MARKET LEADERSHIP: Investors are flocking to Nvidia, drawn by the company’s long-term fundamntals, dominant position in the AI sector, and pricing and margin power Two years after Nvidia Corp made history by becoming the first chipmaker to achieve a US$1 trillion market capitalization, an even more remarkable milestone is within its grasp: becoming the first company to reach US$4 trillion. After the emergence of China’s DeepSeek (深度求索) sent the stock plunging earlier this year and stoked concerns that outlays on artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure were set to slow, Nvidia shares have rallied back to a record. The company’s biggest customers remain full steam ahead on spending, much of which is flowing to its computing systems. Microsoft Corp, Meta Platforms Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Alphabet Inc are
RISING: Strong exports, and life insurance companies’ efforts to manage currency risks indicates the NT dollar would eventually pass the 29 level, an expert said The New Taiwan dollar yesterday rallied to its strongest in three years amid inflows to the nation’s stock market and broad-based weakness in the US dollar. Exporter sales of the US currency and a repatriation of funds from local asset managers also played a role, said two traders, who asked not to be identified as they were not authorized to speak publicly. State-owned banks were seen buying the greenback yesterday, but only at a moderate scale, the traders said. The local currency gained 0.77 percent, outperforming almost all of its Asian peers, to close at NT$29.165 per US dollar in Taipei trading yesterday. The
The US overtaking China as Taiwan’s top export destination could boost industrial development and wage growth, given the US is a high-income economy, an economist said yesterday. However, Taiwan still needs to diversify its export markets due to the unpredictability of US President Donald Trump’s administration, said Chiou Jiunn-rong (邱俊榮), an economics professor at National Central University. Taiwan’s exports soared to a record US$51.74 billion last month, driven by strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) products and continued orders, with information and communication technology (ICT) and audio/video products leading all sectors. The US reclaimed its position as Taiwan’s top export market, accounting for