New board for Union Insurance
Union Insurance Co (友聯產險), the nation's third-largest property insurer, selected a new board of directors yesterday, including seven directors and two supervisors, in a provisional shareholder meeting. Chu Li-ming (朱立明), former chairman of New York Life Insurance Taiwan Corp (國際紐約人壽), will chair Union Insurance, and Samuel Yu (喻志鵬) will serve as the insurer's president.
A notable change is that the scandal-ridden Rebar Asia Pacific Group (力霸亞太企業集團), which used to control the board's seven seats, would completely withdraw from the board although Rebar-related subsidiaries still own a majority stake in the insurer.
The insurer also plans to propose recapitalization in a shareholder meeting scheduled on June 29 in preparations for brining in fresh capital from US-based Newbridge Capital Inc, which plans to invest around US$100 million to buy new shares to be issued by Union Insurance.
United to fly non-stop again
United Airlines said yesterday it will resume its daily non-stop passenger service between Taiwan and San Francisco from June 8.
United will also provide cargo services through the daily non-stop flights, a spokeswoman from United Taiwan said, adding United is scheduled to disclose further details later this month.
"The decision to resume the non-stop flights was made to meet growing demand," she said.
The Chicago-based carrier suspended the service in September 2003 after an outbreak of SARS, which first appeared in Guangdong province in late 2002 and created a global health crisis over the next year, claiming 37 lives in Taiwan.
United operates two daily Taipei-Tokyo and Taipei-Nagoya flights for customers in Taiwan as a transit point to US cities.
The spokeswoman said after resumption of the Taipei-San Francisco flights, United will halt the daily Taipei-Nagoya service.
Siliconware to test memory
Siliconware Precision Industries Co (矽品精密) has received orders from Taiwan's four major memory-chip makers, the Chinese-language Commercial Times reported, without citing anyone.
Siliconware Precision, the nation's second-largest supplier of semiconductor packaging and testing services, said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday that the company could not comment on the report.
The newspaper said that Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (力晶半導體), and ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德科技) all placed orders for Siliconware to package and test advanced memory chips.
Intel settles copyright dispute
Intel Corp said yesterday it had settled a copyright infringement dispute with Shenzhen Donjin Communication Technology Co (深圳東進通訊科技), a Chinese maker of telecommunications and network equipment.
Intel sued Shenzhen Donjin in 2004 for alleged copyright infringements on technology used for touch-pad telephone systems. In 2005, a unit of Shenzhen Donjin countersued, saying that the Santa Clara, California, chipmaker engaged in monopolistic practices.
New Taiwan dollar falls
The New Taiwan dollar fell to a 17-month low on the yen's weakness and oil company deals, dealers said. The change of the country's premiership had little impact on the foreign exchange market, they added.
The NT dollar closed NT$0.013 lower at NT$33.313 against the US dollar yesterday, after touched NT$33.350, the weakest since Dec. 15, 2005, according to Taipei Forex Inc.
Turnover rose to US$923 million from US$593 million on Friday.
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