■ UMC ratings stay unchanged
Taiwan Ratings Corp (中華信評), a local arm of ratings agency Standard & Poor's, yesterday said it would maintain its ratings on United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) as the resignation of the company's chairman would have no immediate impact. UMC chairman Robert Tsao (曹興誠) said in a statement last week that he would resign at a regular board meeting scheduled for March after a feud with the government over whether the company was late in disclosing information regarding its earnings restatement. Taiwan Ratings rated UMC, the world's second-largest contract chipmaker, as "twAA," with an outlook rated "Stable" and "twA-1."
■ TSMC downplays breakdown
The world's largest made-to-order supplier of microships, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), said that one of its factories suffered a breakdown in the fourth quarter, causing "insignificant" losses. "There are no changes to our fourth-quarter guidance" on sales and production, Tzeng Jinn-haw (曾晉皓), a spokesman for the Hsinchu-based company, said on Monday. The "financial impact of the breakdown is insignificant," he said. The factory is back to full capacity, Tzeng said. He declined to say how much the breakdown would cost the company. TSMC may lose an estimated NT$300 million (US$9.1 million) after one of its eight-inch wafer plants suffered a breakdown in production, the Economic Daily News reported yesterday, citing an unidentified client of the company. TSMC said on Oct. 27 that it expects fourth-quarter sales of NT$77 billion to NT$79 billion, compared with NT$63.9 billion a year earlier.
■ Warrants suspended again
Taiwan's brokerages were to stop issuing share warrants yesterday until a tax dispute with the Ministry of Finance is settled, Chien Hung-wen (簡鴻文), chairman of the Chinese Securities Association (券商公會), said on Monday after a member meeting. The 24 securities brokerages licensed to issue warrants are losing money after paying a business income tax of 25 percent, a Taipei-based newspaper said, citing Chien. Brokerages have sued the government for repayment of taxes since 1997, the newspaper said. They had suspended issuing warrants for four months last year over the same issue.
■ Macquarie eyes broadband firm
Australia's biggest commercial radio operator, Macquarie Media Group, has hired DBS Group Holdings Ltd and ING Groep NV for a A$576 million (US$422.9 million) loan to buy Carlyle Group's stake in Taiwan Broadband Communications (台灣寬頻). The one-year loan will be syndicated by the two arranging banks this month, Macquarie Media chief financial officer David Beck said. A special-purpose company will be incorporated to be the borrower, Beck said. The purchase of the 60 percent stake from Carlyle Group, manager of the biggest US buyout fund, will give Macquarie Media access to 12 percent of Asia's third-largest cable television market. Macquarie Bank Ltd, Australia's biggest investment bank, will hold the remaining stake. Washington-based Carlyle bought the cable-TV network company for US$200 million in July 1999.
■ NT dollar strengthens
The New Taiwan dollar gained against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, climbing NT$0.173 to close at NT$32.645. A total of US$1.41 billion changed hands during the day's trading.
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Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
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Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day