■ Union plans to block sale
Chunghwa Telecom Co's (中華電信) labor union plans to take legal action in this country and the US to halt the proposed overseas sale of as much as US$3.4 billion of shares in the telephone company. "We will file a petition to the Taipei High Administrative Court Wednesday to ask for a suspension before the issue of whether the sale is unconstitutional is resolved," Simon Chang (張緒中), president of Chunghwa Telecom Workers' Union (中華電信工會), said yesterday. The union's move comes after the Council of Grand Justices last Friday rejected a request for a ruling on whether the proposed sale is unconstitutional.
■ Infineon mulls Nanya merger
Infineon Technologies AG, Europe's largest semiconductor maker, is considering combining its unprofitable memory-chip division with the chip business of another company, Sueddeutsche Zeitung said, citing unidentified members of the supervisory board. The company is in exploratory talks with potential partners, the German daily reported. One of the favored partners would be Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), with whom Infineon already runs a joint venture, Sueddeutsche Zeitung said. Supervisory board member Dieter Scheitor told the newspaper that a split from the memory unit looks "increasingly likely," although nothing final has been decided yet. "Strong forces" within Infineon favor an initial public offering, a sale or a combination with another company, he said.
■ Philips moves base to Shanghai
Royal Philips Electronics NV last month moved its semiconductor division's Asian headquarters to Shanghai from Taipei, a Chinese-language newspaper reported, citing an unidentified Philips official. Philips restructured its Asian semiconductor division last month, separating it into two divisions: the Greater China region, with its headquarters in Shanghai; and the rest of Asia, the paper said. The Taiwan division will remain staffed and operational, the paper said, citing the official.
■ Fubon buys rival's shares
Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) last week bought 23 million shares in rival Taiwan Business Bank (台灣企銀) through its brokerage arm in the open market, a Chinese-language business daily said, without saying where it obtained the information. Taiwan Business Bank has 4.29 billion outstanding shares in total, according to information released by the lender. The equivalent of 23 million shares is about a 0.5 percent stake. Taiwan Business Bank, a lender 44 percent owned by the government, said July 27 it has started inviting bids from local and foreign investors to buy a stake. It has hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc as its financial adviser to evaluate and propose a merger plan.
■ Cogeneration plant planned
Formosa Plastics Group (FPG, 台塑) plans to invest NT$2 billion (US$63 million) to build a cogeneration energy plant in this country next year, a Chinese-language newspaper said, without saying where it obtained the information. The plant may provide electricity to the group's affiliated companies and others in the industrial zone in Linyuan (林園), the paper said. Cogeneration is a process in which an industrial facility uses its waste energy to produce heat or electricity.
■ NT dollar gains
The New Taiwan dollar gained ground against its US counterpart yesterday, rising NT$0.076 to close at NT$31.844 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$708 million, compared with US$664 million the previous day.
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