Two construction tycoons yesterday jointly won the bidding for a large piece of land in downtown Taipei, injecting a dose of confidence into the property market, which saw sluggish trading in the first half of the year.
Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽), the nation’s second-largest insurer, sold the land near Da-an Forest Park to Lin Ming-hsiung (林敏雄), chairman of Yuan Lih Group (元利建設), and Tsai Tseng-yu (蔡鎮宇), board director of Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), for NT$4.8 billion (US$158 million), or 14.3 percent higher than the floor price of NT$4.2 billion.
Market analysts said the sale of the 1,180 ping (3,894m²) plot located in a residential neighborhood would benefit both parties and help boost the property marketa.
Billy Yen (顏炳立), general manager of DTZ Debenham Tie Leung International Property Advisers (戴德梁行), said he felt certain beforehand that the auction would run smoothly since the lot had been fairly priced.
Yen, whose company Shin Kong had consulted on the auction, said the deal had allowed the seller to increase liquidity as planned while leaving the buyers ample room for profit margins.
Shin Kong Life, a subsidiary of Shin Kong Financial Holding Co (新光金控), acquired the land in 2006 with a view to building upscale housing, but shifted its strategy this year in favor of commercial property that could generate rental profits, the company said in its auction announcement.
Lin and Tsai, whose businesses possess necessary capital and know-how, are expected to turn the plot into luxurious apartment units to be sold at between NT$1.3 million and NT$1.4 million per ping, Yen said. The plot sold for NT$4.07 million per ping, up from the NT$2.6 million per ping Shin Kong paid for it two years ago.
Lin also owns Hwatai Bank (華泰銀行) and Pxmart (全聯社), the nation’s biggest “hard discounter” chain. Tsai jointly purchased the land in his individual capacity but his company is tied to Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽), Cathay Securities (國泰證券), Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) and other financial services providers.
Yen’s estimates would be 65 percent higher than the average price of NT$850,000 per ping in the district, but the property consultant portrayed the price as reasonable, saying it would give profit margins of between 20 percent and 30 percent.
“The auction showed that housing in a good location remains attractive,” Yen said. “Properties in suburban areas may not be as appealing, though.”
Evertrust Rehouse (永慶房屋), a leading real estate agency, said the auction had lifted morale on the property market, which saw trade of high-end housing down 16.5 percent in the second quarter of this year.
Evertrust manager Yeh Kuo-hua (葉國華) said the bearish sentiment in the market, caused by rising inflation and interest rates, could be reversed if sellers would avoid overpricing their properties.
Yeh said the market was not short of funds or buyers, but investors have turned cautious as they try to gauge the impact of improved cross-strait ties and surging fuel costs on the economy.
A wait-and-see attitude is not necessarily a bad strategy, the agent said.
LIMITED IMPACT: Investor confidence was likely sustained by its relatively small exposure to the Chinese market, as only less advanced chips are made in Nanjing Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) saw its stock price close steady yesterday in a sign that the loss of the validated end user (VEU) status for its Nanjing, China, fab should have a mild impact on the world’s biggest contract chipmaker financially and technologically. Media reports about the waiver loss sent TSMC down 1.29 percent during the early trading session yesterday, but the stock soon regained strength and ended at NT$1,160, unchanged from Tuesday. Investors’ confidence in TSMC was likely built on its relatively small exposure to the Chinese market, as Chinese customers contributed about 9 percent to TSMC’s revenue last
With this year’s Semicon Taiwan trade show set to kick off on Wednesday, market attention has turned to the mass production of advanced packaging technologies and capacity expansion in Taiwan and the US. With traditional scaling reaching physical limits, heterogeneous integration and packaging technologies have emerged as key solutions. Surging demand for artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing (HPC) and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips has put technologies such as chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS), integrated fan-out (InFO), system on integrated chips (SoIC), 3D IC and fan-out panel-level packaging (FOPLP) at the center of semiconductor innovation, making them a major focus at this year’s trade show, according
DEBUT: The trade show is to feature 17 national pavilions, a new high for the event, including from Canada, Costa Rica, Lithuania, Sweden and Vietnam for the first time The Semicon Taiwan trade show, which opens on Wednesday, is expected to see a new high in the number of exhibitors and visitors from around the world, said its organizer, SEMI, which has described the annual event as the “Olympics of the semiconductor industry.” SEMI, which represents companies in the electronics manufacturing and design supply chain, and touts the annual exhibition as the most influential semiconductor trade show in the world, said more than 1,200 enterprises from 56 countries are to showcase their innovations across more than 4,100 booths, and that the event could attract 100,000 visitors. This year’s event features 17
Germany is to establish its first-ever national pavilion at Semicon Taiwan, which starts tomorrow in Taipei, as the country looks to raise its profile and deepen semiconductor ties with Taiwan as global chip demand accelerates. Martin Mayer, a semiconductor investment expert at Germany Trade & Invest (GTAI), Germany’s international economic promotion agency, said before leaving for Taiwan that the nation is a crucial partner in developing Germany’s semiconductor ecosystem. Germany’s debut at the international semiconductor exhibition in Taipei aims to “show presence” and signal its commitment to semiconductors, while building trust with Taiwanese companies, government and industry associations, he said. “The best outcome
RSS