Taiwan stocks downgraded
Taiwan's stocks were downgraded at Nomura Holdings Inc on concerns overseas demand will weaken and the nation's central bank will increase interest rates in a bid to contain inflation.
Investors should be "bearish" on Taiwan's equities rather than "bullish," Sean Darby, head of regional strategy at Nomura in Hong Kong, said in a telephone interview.
"Taiwan is still fighting a modest inflation battle, so rate tightening may be a feature of that economy," Darby said.
"We are starting to see weakness in new orders growth from overseas" for Taiwanese products, Darby said.
Tatung buys Proview stake
Tatung Co (大同), Taiwan's oldest household appliance maker, paid about NT$652 million (US$20 million) to gain a 16.2 percent stake in flat-screen television and computer-monitor maker Proview International Holding Ltd (唯冠).
Tatung bought 125.19 million Proview shares for NT$5.21 apiece through an investment unit, the company said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Tuesday.
Galaxy, Gateway merge
Acer Inc said yesterday that its wholly owned subsidiary, Galaxy Acquisition Corp, has completed the process of merging with Gateway Inc of the US.
As a result of the merger, outstanding shares of Gateway common stock were converted into shares with rights to receive US$1.90 in cash per share, it said.
The merger followed Acer's successful completion of its tender offer, through Galaxy Acquisition, for Gateway last week.
According to Acer, a total of about 322.93 million Gateway shares had been validly tendered and not properly withdrawn, and they had all been accepted by the Taiwanese firm for purchase.
The shares represent approximately 86.09 percent of Gateway's outstanding common stock on a fully diluted basis.
Chia Hsin offer accepted
A unit of Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥) had its HK$5.92 billion (US$763 million) all-stock offer for Chia Hsin Cement Greater China Holding Corp accepted, increasing its facilities in China.
About 89 percent of Chia Hsin China's minority shareholders approved the offer from TCC International Holdings Ltd, the two companies said in a Hong Kong stock exchange statement today. Chia Hsin China's parent had already accepted it.
The acquisition will give Taiwan Cement factories in southern and eastern China, the country's fastest growing regions.
TCC offered 0.4545 new shares for each of Chia Hsin China's, it said in a June 15 statement. The value of the deal was calculated based on TCC's closing price today of HK$11.40. Chia Hsin China, a unit of Chia Hsin Cement Corp, had 1.14 billion shares outstanding as of Sept. 28, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Shares close lower
Shares closed 0.32 percent lower yesterday as a result of Wall Street's extended pullback overnight and another spike in oil prices to fresh record highs, dealers said.
A positive performance by Intel and Yahoo in US after-hours trading, after reporting upbeat earnings, helped support select local semiconductor shares, they said.
The TAIEX closed down 30.31 points at 9,562.16, on turnover of NT$143.84 billion (US$4.4 billion).
Decliners led risers 1,139 to 736, with 312 stocks unchanged.
On the foreign exchange market, the New Taiwan dollar closed the day's trading at NT$32.605 over the US dollar, down NT$0.008 from the previous close of NT$32.597. Turnover was US$1.189 billion on the Taipei Forex Inc.
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],”
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
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