The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) is planning to revamp its current underwriting system by allowing more retail investors to subscribe for shares through the drawing of lots when companies hold initial public offerings (IPOs) in the future, commission officials said at the weekend.
The percentage of shares to be purchased through drawing lots could be raised to a maximum of 30 percent of the total amount of each IPO, up from 10 percent currently, if the number of subscription applications reaches 100 times that of the IPO, said Wu Tang-chieh (吳當傑), director general of the commission's Securities and Futures Bureau.
If the number of applications reaches 75 times that of the IPO, the percentage of shares to be sold through drawing lots will be 25 percent of the IPO, while an amount 50 times larger will correspond to 20 percent.
If the amount of applications are 25 times higher, the ratio of lot drawing will be 15 percent.
The new rule may take effect as early as next month, Wu said.
The planned revision to the system came after criticism of the negligible opportunities available for retail investors when up to 650,000 people scrambled for shares of solar cell maker E-ton Solar Tech Co (益通光能) in March.
The subscription amount was 1,000 times that of E-ton's IPO, which offered odds of a mere 0.04 percent of being successful in the lot draw.
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],”
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
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained