Privatization has freed Chunghwa Telecom Co (
The five-year privatization process was completed last month with the sale of a 17 percent stake to local and foreign investors, helping trim the government shareholding to 44 percent. A company is considered privatized when the state's shareholding falls below 50 percent.
As a state-controlled company, Chunghwa had to submit its annual budget to the legislature for approval, a process that could take a year or longer. Also, it was the subject of intense political battles over tariff increases and talk of job cuts. The company's labor union and opposition parties repeatedly tried to derail the privatization process.
"Certainly privatization will make things easier" for Chunghwa, says Macquarie Securities analyst Dominic Grant.
The privatization, part of efforts to open Taiwan's telecommunications sector, began in 2000 with the initial public offering of a small stake in the former monopoly.
But analysts say they will need to see Chunghwa deliver on its promised cost cuts and prove it can make money on its new third-generation mobile services before they will turn bullish about the company's prospects.
Early last month, Chunghwa chairman Hochen Tan (
Senior vice president Hank Wang (
"We shall begin discussing it before the end of this year, though," he said.
The company's net profit for the first half of the year fell 7.8 percent from the same period a year earlier to NT$24.33 billion. Revenue for the first half declined to NT$89.72 billion from NT$90.82 billion.
For the full year, Chunghwa projects a net profit of NT$42.34 billion, a drop of 15 percent from the NT$49.87 billion reported for all of last year.
The privatization move comes as growth in the nation's telecom market is slowing, and competition is increasing. Standard & Poor's said Tuesday it expects Taiwan's telecom industry to record growth in the low single digits over the next few years, because the market is highly saturated.
Price competition is expected to intensify further after the entry of Vibo Telecom Inc (
Sweeping policy changes under US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr are having a chilling effect on vaccine makers as anti-vaccine rhetoric has turned into concrete changes in inoculation schedules and recommendations, investors and executives said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has in the past year upended vaccine recommendations, with the country last month ending its longstanding guidance that all children receive inoculations against flu, hepatitis A and other diseases. The unprecedented changes have led to diminished vaccine usage, hurt the investment case for some biotechs, and created a drag that would likely dent revenues and
Macronix International Co (旺宏), the world’s biggest NOR flash memory supplier, yesterday said it would spend NT$22 billion (US$699.1 million) on capacity expansion this year to increase its production of mid-to-low-density memory chips as the world’s major memorychip suppliers are phasing out the market. The company said its planned capital expenditures are about 11 times higher than the NT$1.8 billion it spent on new facilities and equipment last year. A majority of this year’s outlay would be allocated to step up capacity of multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash memory chips, which are used in embedded multimedia cards (eMMC), a managed
CULPRITS: Factors that affected the slip included falling global crude oil prices, wait-and-see consumer attitudes due to US tariffs and a different Lunar New Year holiday schedule Taiwan’s retail sales ended a nine-year growth streak last year, slipping 0.2 percent from a year earlier as uncertainty over US tariff policies affected demand for durable goods, data released on Friday by the Ministry of Economic Affairs showed. Last year’s retail sales totaled NT$4.84 trillion (US$153.27 billion), down about NT$9.5 billion, or 0.2 percent, from 2024. Despite the decline, the figure was still the second-highest annual sales total on record. Ministry statistics department deputy head Chen Yu-fang (陳玉芳) said sales of cars, motorcycles and related products, which accounted for 17.4 percent of total retail rales last year, fell NT$68.1 billion, or
In the wake of strong global demand for AI applications, Taiwan’s export-oriented economy accelerated with the composite index of economic indicators flashing the first “red” light in December for one year, indicating the economy is in booming mode, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Moreover, the index of leading indicators, which gauges the potential state of the economy over the next six months, also moved higher in December amid growing optimism over the outlook, the NDC said. In December, the index of economic indicators rose one point from a month earlier to 38, at the lower end of the “red” light.
RSS