Nanya to borrow NT$20 billion
Nanya Technology Co (南亞科技), Taiwan's second-largest memory-chip maker, plans to borrow NT$20 billion (US$609 million) through a syndicated loan in the fourth quarter to fund expansion.
Bank of Taiwan (台灣銀行) and Mega Financial Holding Co (兆豐金控) are among possible managers of the loan, said Moor Chen (陳宏模), a spokesman at Taoyuan-based Nanya, confirming a report in the Chinese-language Commercial Times yesterday.
Nanya had NT$46.3 billion in cash at the end of March and has NT$42 billion in outstanding loans and bonds, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The stock climbed 2.3 percent to close at NT$26.40 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.
Government to sell shares
In line with the government's privatization policy, the Ministry of Finance plans to offload 45 million shares, or a 9.11 percent stake, in the Central Reinsurance Corp (中央再保險公司) by the end of the year. The share sale is expected to bring NT$700 million (US$21.3 million) into state coffers, the National Treasury Agency said.
Next year, the ministry will divest its remaining holding of around 70 million shares, or 14.17 percent of the company, to completely step aside from the reinsurer's operations.
At that time, Evergreen Group (長榮集團) will become the firm's sole major shareholder.
Former Fubon officer detained
Former Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) chief investment officer Daniel Chiang (蔣國樑) was detained by the Taipei District Court last night after prosecutors appealed for a second time the court's previous ruling to release him on bail.
The court decided to put Chiang in custody amid concerns that he might destroy or falsify evidence, or collude with others.
Chiang was released last Friday on NT$5 million bail after being questioned by Taipei prosecutors about allegations of insider trading. The Taipei District Prosecutors' Office filed an appeal with the Taiwan High Court to overturn the district court's decision.
Prosecutors say Chiang encouraged friends to buy Hsinchu International Bank shares before the announcement of its planned acquisition by Standard Chartered Bank last September -- earning more than NT$100 million from the trades.
Paradigm sold US holdings
Paradigm US Financial Asset Securitization Fund, one of two high-yield Taiwan funds, said it sold holdings with investments in subprime US home loans last month at a loss to meet requests for redemptions.
The sale was also to avoid further losses should default rates rise on home loans to riskier borrowers, according to a statement from Taipei-based Paradigm Asset Management Co (華頓投信) late last month. The fund, which invests mainly in US securities backed by mortgages and other assets, now owns only investment-grade securities rated AAA or above, the statement said.
Assets managed by the fund fell to NT$1.4 billion on June 30 from NT$4.5 billion at its founding on Nov. 9 of last year, data from the Securities Investment Trust & Consulting Association show. The association will disclose last month's assets of Taiwanese mutual funds within two weeks.
Foreign exchange reserves up
Foreign exchange reserves totaled US$266.29 billion at the end of last month, up slightly from US$266.05 billion a month ago, due to continued foreign capital inflow and interest income, central bank figures showed yesterday.
Taiwan is ranked fourth in the world in terms of the amount of the foreign exchange reserves, after China, Japan and Russia.
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
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy