Radium Life Tech Co (日勝生) yesterday secured a syndicated loan of NT$12.45 billion (US$402.9 million), the largest of its kind, from 10 domestic banks for the construction of its MeHAS City (美河市) project in Sindian (新店), Taipei County.
The loan will cover about 65 percent of the project’s construction cost of NT$20 billion, Radium Life spokesperson Amme Chou (周惠玉) said yesterday.
However, Chou said, the construction cost could increase by as much as 10 percent as a result of rising material costs.
The loan will stretch over six years with a 4 percent interest rate, said Mega International Commercial Bank (兆豐國際商銀), one of the three banks involved in the deal. The other two are Taiwan Cooperative Bank (合作金庫銀行) and Land Bank of Taiwan (土銀).
Radium Life, founded in 1980, expressed confidence in its MeHAS City project, or “Mass Rapid Transportation (MRT) Xiaobitan Station Joint Development,” which sits on 28,000 ping (9.3 hectares) of land along the riverside and includes NT$300 billion in residential homes, offices, shopping malls and a movie theater. MeHAS City is located at the Xiaobitan MRT Station.
Pre-sales of the project, which is slated to be completed in late 2011, reached NT$17 billion earlier this month, Chou said.
The developer started promoting the project last October, with a unit price of between NT$400,000 and NT$600,000 per ping, which represents a premium of more than 50 percent on the selling prices of housing projects nearby, she said.
The MeHAS City project also includes 13 buildings, which range from 18 to 28 stories for a total floor space of 12,000 ping, with each unit measuring from 20 ping to more than 100 ping.
“Location, transportation, living convenience and a river view are the reasons why our project, which suits residents of all ages, outperforms its rivals,” Chou said, adding that buyers included Xindian and Taipei residents, as well as overseas Taiwanese businesspeople.
Radium Life shares rose 6.98 percent to close limit-up on the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday at NT$21.45.
The slowing economy has had a negative impact on the real estate market. Radium Life’s shares have declined 14.5 percent since the beginning of the year, the stock exchange’s tallies show.
But Chou was positive on the market’s long-term prospects: “In the long run, the property market will prosper once the economy rebounds, although each project will perform differently.”
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