■ Jih Sun to sell shares
Jih Sun Financial Holding Co (日盛金控), the nation's second smallest financial group, planned to raise as much as NT$3.2 billion (US$97.05 million) by selling 400 million shares at NT$8 per share in a private placement, the company said in a filing yesterday.
The fundraising will be made after it cuts its paid-in capital by NT$13.71 billion, or 33.75 percent, to make up its huge loss and strengthen financial structure, the filing read.
After the capital reduction, the company will have NT$26.92 billion in capitalization.
Jih Sun Financial declined to comment if it has found new interested investor, or if its strategic partner Shinsei Bank of Japan, which currently controls 31.8 percent of the company, will raise their investment.
■ GRETAI to hold roadshow
The GRETAI Securities Market will lead 10 listed firms to hold its first international roadshow in May in cooperation with US investment bank JP Morgan to promote local companies to interested foreign investors, chairman Lu Daung-yen (呂東英) said yesterday.
The participant firms, including Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (力晶半導體), that have agreed to join the briefings to take place in London on May 8 and in New York on May 10 all enjoy a market value exceeding US$100 million and ideal corporate governance, Lu said.
■ Taiwan dollar strengthens
The New Taiwan dollar firmed against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, gaining NT$0.019 to close at NT$32.974 on turnover of US$909 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],”
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