Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) has invested in local cell-tissue banking and cell therapy company Bionet Corp (訊聯生物科技) through the purchase of NT$100 million (US$2.86 million) in Bionet shares, a Bionet official said.
The purchased shares represent 8.6 percent of Bionet’s outstanding shares, Bionet chairman Chris Tsai (蔡政憲) said at a media briefing yesterday.
The two companies plan to invest an additional NT$200 million in a joint venture called Conn Lian (康聯生醫), aimed at developing next-generation health care focused on predictive, preventive, personalized and participatory medicine, Tsai said.
Bolstered by the announcement, Bionet stocks rose limit-up to NT$43.40 on the GRETAI Securities Market. Hon Hai shares rose 5.01 percent to NT$75.5 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Hon Hai’s latest announcement followed the signing on Wednesday of a global GreenCert agreement with IBM, Enterprise Information Management Inc and C-Lock Technology Inc. The companies will jointly introduce greenhouse gas emission measurement technology.
“Hon Hai will take 50 percent ownership of the newly formed company, while Bionet and the rest of the investment consortium will each take 22.5 percent and 27.5 percent,” Tsai said.
Tsai said that in order for Bionet to increase its scale of operations, it urgently needed sizable funding and a partner who understands the importance of biotechnology.
Bionet therefore approached Hon Hai as a first choice investment partner roughly one year ago, Tsai said.
“After consulting with numerous international biotechnology firms, Hon Hai has chosen to invest in Bionet due to its superior technology management and operational capabilities. This collaboration marks the nation’s first real step by a large conglomerate to actively invest in genetic engineering and stem cell research,” David Wu (吳啟誠), head of Hon Hai medical group, said at the same briefing.
In separate news, Wu said Hon Hai chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) and his wife were both well and anticipated the arrival of their first baby sometime in May.
CHIP CRUNCH: Apple’s woes show that even the king of the technology world is not immune from global shortages made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic Apple Inc is likely to slash its projected iPhone 13 production targets for this year by as many as 10 million units as prolonged chip shortages hit its flagship product, people with knowledge of the matter said. The company had expected to produce 90 million new iPhone models in the final three months of this year, but it is now telling manufacturing partners that the total would be lower because Broadcom Inc and Texas Instruments Inc are struggling to deliver enough components, the people said. Apple gets display parts from Texas Instruments, while Broadcom is its longtime supplier of wireless components. One Texas
Units of Intel Corp and Samsung Electronics Co are targeting to resume full operations of their Ho Chi Minh City plants by the end of next month, a move that could provide relief to global supply chains. Saigon Hi-Tech Park is helping its tenants, many of which are running at about 70 percent capacity, to operate fully next month, park deputy manager Le Bich Loan said in a phone interview. She did not elaborate on the steps the park is taking, particularly efforts at bringing back workers who fled to home provinces. The Ho Chi Minh City unit of Nidec Sankyo Corp,
EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) and China Airlines Ltd (中華航空), the nation’s two major airlines, reported accelerated revenue growth in the third quarter compared with the previous two quarters, thanks to robust air cargo business. EVA Airways yesterday said sales for last quarter rose 40 percent year-on-year to NT$25.81 billion (US$917 million), compared with an increase of 25 percent in the second quarter and a fall of 35 percent in the first quarter. China Airlines said sales grew 39 percent to NT$34.6 billion in the third quarter, after gaining 10 percent in the second quarter and falling 14 percent in the first quarter. EVA
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) is embarking on a recruitment drive to hire 200,000 workers in Shenzhen, China, as it ramps up production of the new iPhone 13 series, Chinese business news outlet Eastmoney.com reported. Hon Hai is seeking to recruit those heading back to the city after China’s seven-day National Day holiday, which began on Oct. 1, to help churn out the estimated 100,000 iPhone 13s produced on the site each day, the report said. Following last month’s global release of the iPhone 13, Hon Hai entered its traditional peak season, and workers at its Chinese production sites are said
RSS