Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), Taiwan’s biggest financial services company, reported a fourth-quarter loss after writing down Iceland-related investments and the value of its stock investments slumped.
The Taipei-based company, which owns Taiwan’s largest life insurer, made a loss of NT$1.37 billion (US$41 million), compared with a loss of NT$2.23 billion a year earlier.
The figures were derived by subtracting nine-month results from unaudited full- year earnings released in a statement today.
Lee Chang-ken (李長庚), a spokesman at Cathay Financial, confirmed the fourth-quarter loss.
Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行), its banking unit, took a writedown of NT$2.1 billion because of losses from overseas investments, including collateralized debt obligations, Lee said.
Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽), another unit, had a loss after the value of its stock investment fell because of the financial crisis, Lee said, without providing details.
Global equities lost US$30 trillion in value last year as the collapse of the US housing market led to more than US$1 trillion of losses and writedowns at financial institutions worldwide.
Cathay Financial’s full-year net profit fell to NT$2.4 billion, or NT$0.25 per share, the statement to the Taiwan stock exchange said. The company is scheduled to release an audited report before March.
Meanwhile, Mega Financial Holding Co (兆豐金控), Taiwan’s third-largest financial company by market capitalization, said yesterday its full-year net income plunged.
The company said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange that its net income was NT$710.5 million, or NT$0.06 cents, based on unaudited figures.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
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],”