Deutsche Bank bonds are go
The Financial Supervisory Com-mission said yesterday that Deutsche Bank's application to issue the nation's first batch of US dollar-denominated corporate bonds will take effect next Tuesday, seven working days after the foreign bank lodged the application last Friday.
The whole batch of bonds to be traded in Taiwan's offshore bond market is worth US$200 million to US$500 million with a face value of US$10,000 per sheet and a yield of between 4.6 percent and 5 percent, the commission said in a statement released yesterday.
The market regulator is holding a game to name the bond with 15 choices for participants, including Formosa Bond and Taiwan 101 Bond.
Wafer foundries cool heels
The wafer foundry industry will have to wait up to six months for its clients to clear their inventory, a spokesman for Taiwan Semicon-ductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world's largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday.
The comments confirmed a Chinese-language Economic Daily News report, in which company vice chairman Tseng Fan-cheng (曾繁城) also said that the launch of new processors for personal computers and Microsoft's new operating system had not provided a much anticipated boost for the PC market.
"Yes, Tseng did say that," TSMC spokesman Tzeng Jinn-haw (曾晉皓) said on the excess inventory, "but he stopped short of saying the industry will begin witnessing a business upturn afterwards."
King's Town woos Lyu
King's Town Bank (京城銀行), the successor to Tainan Business Bank (台南企銀), announced on Sunday that it had invited former minister of finance Joseph Lyu (呂桔誠) to be the bank's chairman.
After raising NT$3.8 billion (US$115.36 million) and a change of name last year, King's Town has endeavored to promote its business and improve asset quality, lowering its bad loan ratio to 2.26 percent and raising its coverage ratio to 32.07 percent as of last month, the bank said in a filing yesterday.
The bank expected the appointment of Lyu, a seasoned banker, to help enhance operations and strengthen management in light of his experiences at the Bank of Taiwan (台灣銀行), the Land Bank of Taiwan (土地銀行) and foreign financial institutions, the filing said.
Lyu stepped down in July after a five-month stint at the finance ministry amid heavy criticism of the ministry's loss of board seats in state-controlled Mega Financial Holding Co (兆豐金控) to smaller rival Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金控). The loss raised concerns of a conflict of interest.
Money supply growth down
The nation's growth in money supply slowed last month as expansion in bank lending and investment cooled.
M2, the broadest measure of money supply, rose 5.43 percent last month from a year earlier after gaining 5.72 percent in July, the Central Bank of China said yesterday.
M1A, which tracks net currency in circulation plus checking accounts and passbook deposits, gained 3.18 percent last month after climbing 4.58 percent in July, the central bank said.
M1B, which excludes time deposits and foreign-currency deposits included in M2, rose 2.77 percent last month from a year earlier, following a 3.12 percent increase the previous month.
NT dollar gains on greenback
The New Taiwan dollar gained against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, moving up NT$0.001 to close at NT$32.939. A total of US$627 million changed hands during the day's trading.
Greek tourism student Katerina quit within a month of starting work at a five-star hotel in Halkidiki, one of the country’s top destinations, because she said conditions were so dire. Beyond the bad pay, the 22-year-old said that her working and living conditions were “miserable and unacceptable.” Millions holiday in Greece every year, but its vital tourism industry is finding it harder and harder to recruit Greeks to look after them. “I was asked to work in any department of the hotel where there was a need, from service to cleaning,” said Katerina, a tourism and marketing student, who would
i Gasoline and diesel prices at fuel stations are this week to rise NT$0.1 per liter, as tensions in the Middle East pushed crude oil prices higher last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices last week rose for the third consecutive week due to an escalating conflict between Israel and Iran, as the market is concerned that the situation in the Middle East might affect crude oil supply, CPC and Formosa said in separate statements. Front-month Brent crude oil futures — the international oil benchmark — rose 3.75 percent to settle at US$77.01
RECORD LOW: Global firms’ increased inventories, tariff disputes not yet impacting Taiwan and new graduates not yet entering the market contributed to the decrease Taiwan’s unemployment rate last month dropped to 3.3 percent, the lowest for the month in 25 years, as strong exports and resilient domestic demand boosted hiring across various sectors, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. After seasonal adjustments, the jobless rate eased to 3.34 percent, the best performance in 24 years, suggesting a stable labor market, although a mild increase is expected with the graduation season from this month through August, the statistics agency said. “Potential shocks from tariff disputes between the US and China have yet to affect Taiwan’s job market,” Census Department Deputy Director Tan Wen-ling
UNCERTAINTIES: The world’s biggest chip packager and tester is closely monitoring the US’ tariff policy before making any capacity adjustments, a company official said ASE Technology Holding Inc (日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packager and tester, yesterday said it is cautiously evaluating new advanced packaging capacity expansion in the US in response to customers’ requests amid uncertainties about the US’ tariff policy. Compared with its semiconductor peers, ASE has been relatively prudent about building new capacity in the US. However, the company is adjusting its global manufacturing footprint expansion after US President Donald Trump announced “reciprocal” tariffs in April, and new import duties targeting semiconductors and other items that are vital to national security. ASE subsidiary Siliconware Precision Industries Co (SPIL, 矽品精密) is participating in Nvidia