Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電訊), the nation's third-biggest mobile phone operator, said yesterday it plans to buy a major stake in fixed-line service operator New Century Infocomm Tech Co (NCIC, 新世紀資通) from Singapore Telecommunications Ltd (SingTel) via a share swap.
Far EasTone would issue 160.37 million new shares in exchange for SingTel's 24.51 percent holding of NCIC, the company said in a statement.
The exchange would give SingTel a 3.98 percent stake in Far EasTone, as well as access to Taiwan's mobile-phone industry. It would also make SingTel Far EasTone's second-largest foreign institutional shareholder after NTT DoCoMo, which has a 4.7 percent stake.
exchange
Each Far EasTone share would be exchanged for 6.11 NCIC shares, the statement said.
That meant Far EasTone would be buying NCIC at NT$6.22 per share -- based on Far EasTone's closing price of NT$38 yesterday -- and at a 19 percent discount to NCIC's book value of NT$7.65 per share.
"Far EasTone is taking this action to improve efficiency in the enterprise market as well as in the international phone market," Far EasTone president Jan Nilsson told a press briefing yesterday following the board's approval of the acquisition.
After the deal, Far EasTone's market share in the enterprise area may nearly quadruple from 5 percent now, Nilsson said.
Over the next three-year period, Far EasTone would add NT$1.8 billion (US$54.5 million) in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization beginning next year in the wake of the deal, Nilsson said.
timetable
The transaction is scheduled to be completed by the end of this year. SingTel may have a seat in Far EasTone's board, Nilsson said.
"This is one piece of the puzzle to fulfill our vision of providing convergent services," Nilsson said.
Far EasTone forecast yesterday that its third-quarter pre-tax profit would dip 2.7 percent sequentially to NT$3.7 billion, while consolidated revenues would rise 6.2 percent to NT$16.8 billion.
Shiina Ito has had fewer Chinese customers at her Tokyo jewelry shop since Beijing issued a travel warning in the wake of a diplomatic spat, but she said she was not concerned. A souring of Tokyo-Beijing relations this month, following remarks by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi about Taiwan, has fueled concerns about the impact on the ritzy boutiques, noodle joints and hotels where holidaymakers spend their cash. However, businesses in Tokyo largely shrugged off any anxiety. “Since there are fewer Chinese customers, it’s become a bit easier for Japanese shoppers to visit, so our sales haven’t really dropped,” Ito
The number of Taiwanese working in the US rose to a record high of 137,000 last year, driven largely by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) rapid overseas expansion, according to government data released yesterday. A total of 666,000 Taiwanese nationals were employed abroad last year, an increase of 45,000 from 2023 and the highest level since the COVID-19 pandemic, data from the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) showed. Overseas employment had steadily increased between 2009 and 2019, peaking at 739,000, before plunging to 319,000 in 2021 amid US-China trade tensions, global supply chain shifts, reshoring by Taiwanese companies and
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) Chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) and the company’s former chairman, Mark Liu (劉德音), both received the Robert N. Noyce Award -- the semiconductor industry’s highest honor -- in San Jose, California, on Thursday (local time). Speaking at the award event, Liu, who retired last year, expressed gratitude to his wife, his dissertation advisor at the University of California, Berkeley, his supervisors at AT&T Bell Laboratories -- where he worked on optical fiber communication systems before joining TSMC, TSMC partners, and industry colleagues. Liu said that working alongside TSMC
TECHNOLOGY DAY: The Taiwanese firm is also setting up a joint venture with Alphabet Inc on robots and plans to establish a firm in Japan to produce Model A EVs Manufacturing giant Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday announced a collaboration with ChatGPT developer OpenAI to build next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure and strengthen its local supply chain in the US to accelerate the deployment of advanced AI systems. Building such an infrastructure in the US is crucial for strengthening local supply chains and supporting the US in maintaining its leading position in the AI domain, Hon Hai said in a statement. Through the collaboration, OpenAI would share its insights into emerging hardware needs in the AI industry with Hon Hai to support the company’s design and development work, as well
RSS