■ Shares down on profit-taking
The TAIEX fell 23.47 points, or 0.3 percent, to 6,757.17, as investors locked in profits after a recent rally. The index had gained 6.6 percent from March 23 to last Friday. Turnover was NT$86.09 billion (US$2.66 billion). Electronics shares were among the biggest decliners with a 0.6 percent fall overall, while the financial subindex slid 0.6 percent on continued investor concern over the banking sector's consumer loan problem. Cathay Financial Holding Corp (國泰金控), the nation's largest financial group by assets, slipped 0.7 percent to NT$59.10 yesterday. On Monday, the group reported a net loss of NT$11 million last month.
■ CEOs need to lead in creativity
Innovation is the key to sustaining a company's profitability, and chief executives should take the lead in initiating these creative waves, industry insiders said yesterday. Organizations should dispose of stereotypes that research and development engineers are the only source of creative inspiration, said Charles Kau (高啟全), president of computer-memory maker Inotera Memories Inc (華亞科技). Kau made the remarks at a press conference in which IBM Taiwan Corp revealed the results of its global CEO survey. The survey suggested that companies must inject new ideas into their operations if they intend to stand out in today's competitive business environment. To ensure success in business, CEOs should take the lead in making the creative juice flow by continuously observing people, pursuing new ideas and drafting appropriate policies to fit their employees' needs, Kau said.
■ Lin calls for more clarity
China Development Financial Holding Corp's (中華開發) chairman Lin Cheng-yi (林誠一) ruled on Monday that the company should tender a detailed report to the board of directors to clarify its controversial hostile takeover bid of its smaller rival Taiwan Interna-tional Securities Corp (金鼎證券). Lin, a senior adviser to President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and former chairman of the now defunct Macoto Bank (誠泰銀行), took over China Development Finan-cial's chair from Chen Mu-tsai (陳木在) on March 31, after the latter was ousted for allegedly failing to perform his duties in accordance with his position as a government-appointed board director in the wake of the company's disputed acquisition bid. The directors also decided at the meeting to distribute NT$0.2 in cash dividends and NT$0.3 in stock dividends to shareholders this year. The shareholders' meeting is scheduled to be held on June 30, the company said.
■ Fitch may downgrade AUO
AU Optronics Corp (AUO, 友達光電) may have its long-term debt rating cut by Fitch Ratings due to the company's plan to buy rival Quanta Display Inc (廣輝電子) for US$2.2 billion in stock. AUO's long-term issuer default rating of BB and national long-term rating of BBB+(twn) were placed on negative watch, Fitch said in a statement yesterday. AUO said on Friday that it would issue one share for every 3.5 of Quanta Display. Fitch estimates AUO will acquire around NT$55 billion (US$1.7 billion) to NT$60 million of net interest bearing debt from Quanta Display, according to the statement. The ratings company "does not expect any possible downgrade of the rating will exceed one notch," according to the statement. The review of the rating will be conducted in the next three to six months, the statement said.
■ NT dollar ends lower
The New Taiwan dollar traded lower against its US counterpart, declining NT$0.041 to close at NT$32.446 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$853 million.
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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