Nan Ya Plastics Corp (南亞塑膠), the nation’s largest plastics maker, said yesterday its board had approved a proposal to distribute NT$1.1 in dividends per common share based on last year’s earnings, down 83.6 percent from an all-cash dividend of NT$6.7 it paid in the previous year.
In a stock exchange filing yesterday, Nan Ya said the dividend payout would include NT$0.8 in cash and 3 percent in stock.
The NT$1.1 dividend, if approved by shareholders on June 11, compares with the NT$1.5 dividend Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) — another Formosa Plastics Group company — announced on March 13 and marked the lowest payout to date from one of the group’s subsidiaries.
With shares closing at NT$41.3 yesterday, Nan Ya’s proposed cash dividend of NT$0.8 translated into a dividend yield of 1.9 percent. That would be slightly higher than the 1.8 percent in dividend yield at Formosa Petrochemical, based on its share price of NT$67.7 yesterday.
Nan Ya’s worse-than-expected dividend payout came as the firm was negatively affected by weak petrochemicals prices, rising inventory write-downs and continued losses at other Formosa Group affiliates, resulting in an 84.1 percent decline in net earnings last year from the previous year, another stock exchange filing from the company said yesterday.
Nan Ya reported NT$9.39 billion (US$278 million) in after-tax net profit last year, or NT$1.23 earnings per share, the filing said. In 2007, the company made a record profit of NT$59.05 billion or NT$7.75 in earnings per share, the company’s previous financial reports said.
Operating profit dropped to NT$11.96 billion, a 67.4 percent decline from NT$36.74 billion a year earlier, while revenue fell to NT$208.72 billion last year, down 8.7 percent from NT$228.7 billion recorded in the previous year, the company said.
After earning NT$24.82 billion in profit in the first nine months of last year, Nan Ya incurred a loss of NT$15.43 billion in the final three months.
In comparison, the firm reported a net profit of NT$15.36 billion for the same period of 2007 and a net profit of NT$5.98 billion in the third quarter of last year.
In another exchange filing, Nan Ya said the board also approved a plan to raise NT$2.28 billion by issuing 228.71 million new shares, as the company wants to use the proceeds for capacity expansion.
The board also agreed to issue a NT$10 billion in seven-year corporate bonds to repay debt and improve its financial structure, a separate filing said.
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
With an approval rating of just two percent, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte might be the world’s most unpopular leader, according to pollsters. Protests greeted her rise to power 29 months ago, and have marked her entire term — joined by assorted scandals, investigations, controversies and a surge in gang violence. The 63-year-old is the target of a dozen probes, including for her alleged failure to declare gifts of luxury jewels and watches, a scandal inevitably dubbed “Rolexgate.” She is also under the microscope for a two-week undeclared absence for nose surgery — which she insists was medical, not cosmetic — and is
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
CHIP DUTIES: TSMC said it voiced its concerns to Washington about tariffs, telling the US commerce department that it wants ‘fair treatment’ to protect its competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reiterated robust business prospects for this year as strong artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from Nvidia Corp and other customers would absorb the impacts of US tariffs. “The impact of tariffs would be indirect, as the custom tax is the importers’ responsibility, not the exporters,” TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at the chipmaker’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Hsinchu City. TSMC’s business could be affected if people become reluctant to buy electronics due to inflated prices, Wei said. In addition, the chipmaker has voiced its concern to the US Department of Commerce
RSS