The newly elected top management at Taipei Financial Center Corp (TFCC, 台北金融大樓公司), which owns the Taipei 101 building, yesterday said it would end its loss-making days as early as next year.
“We aim to break even some time next year and reap an estimated [pre-tax] earning of NT$600 million [US$18.5 million] in three years,” said company chairman Harace Lin (林鴻明), who was promoted from his previous post as acting chairman and president during a board reshuffle yesterday.
Lin will keep his post as the company’s president.
As of the end of last month, TFCC had incurred NT$86 million in pre-tax losses, an 86 percent drop from one year earlier, its press statement said.
TFCC is expected to see a smaller loss of NT$100 million this year from last year’s pre-tax loss of NT$900 million, it said.
Lin, who represents the company’s biggest shareholder — the Ministry of Finance, which holds a 44 percent stake — said the company had first turned a monthly profit in April and June this year.
TFCC is targeted to see another NT$1 billion in before-tax earnings five years from now, he added.
The company’s board yesterday elected Wei Ing-chiao (魏應交), chairman of Ting Hsin International Group (頂新集團), to be its vice chairman. Ting Hsin, which owns Wei Chuan Foods Corp (味全食品) in Taiwan and the instant-noodle brand Master Kong (康師傅) in China, is the second-largest shareholder in TFCC with a 37 percent stake.
In this board reshuffle, Ting Hsin secured five seats on the company’s 13-member board while the government controlled a majority with six seats, leaving one seat each to private shareholders Chinatrust Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) and Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金控).
Besides Wei Ing-chiao, younger brother of Ting Hsin chairman Wei Ing-chou (魏應洲), the group yesterday successfully nominated Wei Ing-chun (魏應充), chairman of Wei Chuan and the second-youngest Wei brother; architect Eric Yao (姚仁祿); banker Benny Hu (胡定吾) and Dennis Chen (陳進財), vice president of Wei Chuan, as TFCC board members.
“I am here to learn,” Wei Ing-chiao told a media briefing yesterday where he highly recommended Lin as a professional to manage TFCC.
He, however, downplayed questions on whether the Wei family plans to increase their stake in TFCC and grab the chairmanship of TFCC within three years.
“We will do anything that is in the interest of all [TFCC] shareholders,” he said.
Additionally, Ting Hsin will soon take up some office space at the skyscraper as its corporate headquarters in Taipei, while mulling the possibility of opening an upscale Master Kong Beef Noodle restaurant there, as well, he said.
UNPRECEDENTED PACE: Micron Technology has announced plans to expand manufacturing capabilities with the acquisition of a new chip plant in Miaoli Micron Technology Inc unveiled a newly acquired chip plant in Miaoli County yesterday, as the company expands capacity to meet growing demand for advanced DRAM chips, including high-bandwidth memory chips amid the artificial intelligence boom. The plant in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), which Micron acquired from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion, is expected to make a sizeable capacity contribution to the company from fiscal 2028, the company said in a statement. It would be an extended production site of Micron’s large-scale manufacturing hub in Taichung, the company said. As the global semiconductor industry is racing to reach US$1 trillion
Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery giant Grab Holdings Ltd has applied for regulatory approval to acquire the Taiwan operations of Germany-based Delivery Hero SE's Foodpanda in a deal valued at about US$600 million. Grab submitted the filing to the Fair Trade Commission on Friday last week, with the transaction subject to regulatory review and approval, the company said in a statement yesterday. Its independent governance structure would help foster a healthy and competitive market in Taiwan if the deal is approved, Grab said. Grab, which is listed on the NASDAQ, said in the filing that US-based Uber Technologies Inc holds about 13 percent of
ABOVE LEGAL REQUIREMENT: The Ministry of Economic Affairs is prepared if LNG supply is disrupted, with more than the legal requirement of 11 days of inventory Taiwan has largely secured liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies through May and arranged about half of June’s supply, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday. Since the Middle East conflict began on Feb. 28, Taiwan’s LNG inventories have remained more than 12 days, exceeding the legal requirement of 11 days, indicating no major supply concerns for domestic gas and electricity, Kung said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. The ministry aims to increase the figure to 14 days by the end of next year, he said. While one or two LNG or crude oil shipments for May
Taiwan’s food delivery market could undergo a major shift if Singapore-based Grab Holdings Ltd completes its planned acquisition of Delivery Hero SE’s Foodpanda business in Taiwan, industry experts said. Grab on Monday last week announced it would acquire Foodpanda’s Taiwan operations for US$600 million. The deal is expected to be finalized in the second half of this year, with Grab aiming to complete user migration to its platform by the first half of next year. A duopoly between Uber Eats and Foodpanda dominates Taiwan’s delivery market, a structure that has remained intact since the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) blocked Uber Technologies Inc’s