Banks' shareholders meet
Several Taiwanese banks held shareholders meetings yesterday to finalize their distribution of cash dividends.
Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) agreed to distribute a cash dividend of NT$1.5 per share to shareholders while Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金控) announced a cash dividend of NT$1 per share.
Also, Yuanta Financial Holding Co (元大金控) decided to give NT$0.65 in cash dividends per share and the Industrial Bank of Taiwan (台灣工銀) NT$0.55 per share.
Meanwhile, EnTie Commercial Bank (安泰銀行) yesterday finalized its plan to cut its capital by NT$22 billion, or 55.26 percent, to total at NT$17.8 billion, after writing off NT$20.6 billion-worth bad loans for last year.
After raising NT$4 billion last year, Union Bank of Taiwan (聯邦銀行) yesterday claimed that its capital adequacy ratio has risen to 9.44 percent in the third quarter.
Formosa to press on with plant
Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), Taiwan’s biggest diversified industrial company, said accelerating inflation in Vietnam will not deter it from constructing a steel plant there next month.
Formosa is also considering building an oil refinery and ethylene plant in the country, chief executive officer William Wong (王文淵) said yesterday. He didn’t give details about the new projects being considered.
Vietnam is trying contain an inflation rate that’s at its highest level since at least 1992. Pacific Hospital Supply Co (太平洋醫材) and Taiwan Sugar Corp (台糖) have postponed plans to invest in Vietnam, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported on Wednesday.
“We’ll be careful, while investment in Vietnam will continue,” Wong said after a shareholders’ meeting for unit Nan Ya Plastics Corp (南亞塑膠). “We remain confident.”
Taiwan files dispute against EU
Taiwan joined the US and Japan on Thursday in filing a WTO dispute claiming that the EU has failed to fulfill its commitment to eliminate tariffs on certain technology products.
The Taiwanese delegation to the WTO said it sent a consultation request to its EU counterpart, an action the US and Japan took on May 28.
The products in question are flat panel displays, set-top boxes with a communication function, “input or output units” and fax machines.
In its consultation request, Taiwan says that according to the Information Technology Agreement (ITA), these products should be duty-free, but the EU and member states still impose duty on them.
The EU, however, maintains that certain products are taxed because they possess additional functions and are therefore not covered by the ITA.
Wang gets Acer thumbs-up
Acer Inc’s annual shareholders meeting approved a proposal yesterday to have the company’s chairman Wang Jeng-tang (王振堂) also serve as the chief executive officer of the Acer Group, the Chinese-language business news Web site cnYes.com reported.
Wang will continue his chairmanship at the world’s third-largest PC vendor, the report said.
Shareholders also agreed in the meeting to appoint the company’s president Gianfranco Lanci as the chief executive officer for his contribution to the firm. Lanci will still remain the company’s president, the report said.
NT dollar unchanged
The NT dollar remained unchanged against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, closing at NT$30.451.
A total of US$1.001 billion changed hands during the day’s trading.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last