■ Powerchip ups Macronix stake
Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (力晶半導體), Taiwan's biggest memory-chip maker, raised its stake in Macronix International Co (旺宏電子) to 2.79 percent to become the company's biggest institutional investor.
The chipmaker bought a 1.4 percent stake in Macronix for NT$377 million (US$11.5 million) last month, Powerchip said yesterday in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
The move came after Powerchip said in June that it bought a wafer plant from Macronix for NT$5.3 billion and the companies would cooperate in advanced technology, including production of flash memory chips. The factory is located in Hsinchu, where Powerchip and Macronix are based.
The company bought 42.05 million Macronix shares at an average price of NT$8.96 each between July 4 and July 31 for investment purposes, the statement said, without providing details.
■ FSC mulls bank relaxation
Banks affiliated with financial groups may soon be able to acquire rivals or other financial holding companies alone, instead of through parent financial holding firms as current practice requires, the Financial Supervisory Commission said yesterday.
The commission is mulling whether to relax the investment restrictions.
The move may facilitate consolidation of the nation's crowded banking sector.
The planned relaxation aims to equalize the status of banks under the umbrella of financial holding firms to that of stand-alone banks as well as securities houses and insurance company affiliates, commission spokesperson Susan Chang (張秀蓮) said.
Currently, financial groups' bank affiliates are not allowed to invest in other financial institutions while their standalone rivals are free to do so.
The relaxation may enable large bank affiliates of financial groups to acquire smaller-scale financial holding firms. Chang did not deny the possibility, saying only that all investment plans were subject to regulator's review and approval.
■ Bonds rise again
Taiwan's 10-year bonds rose for a second day on speculation a decline in local stocks lured investors to government debt.
"As the economy slows, the mood is for investors to be bullish on bonds," said Liao Yu-ping, a fixed-income trader at Grand Cathay Securities Corp (大華證券) in Taipei, a unit of Taiwan's eighth-largest financial firm. "Money flowed from the market into bonds."
The yield on the benchmark 1.75 percent bond due in March 2016 fell 2.4 basis points, or 0.024 percentage points, to 2.075 percent as of 5pm in Taipei, according to Gretai Securities Market, Taiwan's biggest exchange for bonds. The price rose 0.2071, or NT$207.1 per NT$100,000 face amount, to 97.1747.
■ CEPD helps yacht builders
The Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) decided on Monday to earmark NT$450 million (US$13.74 million) to improve facilities at two docks in Kaohsiung Harbor to help Taiwan's yacht-building industry enhance its competitiveness in the world market.
Taiwan now ranks the fifth in the world in terms of yacht-building -- after Italy, the US, the Netherlands and the UK.
According to the council, Taiwan's yacht-building industry had its heyday in 1985 when it captured 94.1 percent of the market in the US. After that, the number of yachts built each year had dropped from 700 to 228 by 1994.
■ NT loses on greenback
The New Taiwan dollar weakened against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, declining NT$0.062 to close at NT$32.818.
A total of US$684 million changed hands during the day.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six