Shin Kong injects funds
The board of Shin Kong Financial Holding Co (新光金控) yesterday approved injecting NT$18 billion (US$556.5 million) into subsidiary Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽) by taking up the life insurer’s common shares, the company said in a press statement.
The financial services provider said that the capital injection will be funded by the proceeds of NT$13.1 billion (US$406 million) from its issuance of global depository receipts in July and another NT$5.3 billion to be raised via the issuance of common shares to be completed on Dec. 10.
Meanwhile, Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) yesterday said in a press statement that its Shanghai-based non-life insurance subsidiary has received a regulatory approval in Fujian Province to become the first Taiwanese non-life insurer to set up presence there.
Cathay seeks Shanghai branch
Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) will seek to upgrade its representative office in Shanghai to a branch and is hoping the new branch will undertake business in Chinese yuan, company president Chen Tsu-pei (陳祖培) said on Thursday.
Chen said that upgrading its liaison office in Shanghai will be the Cathay group’s priority and that it will involve an investment of 200 million yuan (US$29.2 million).
The company expects to begin earning profits when the business turnover of the new branch reaches US$160 million, Chen said.
Delta unveils hybrid
Delta Electronics Inc (台達電子) yesterday unveiled its newly developed gasoline-electric hybrid propulsion system, making it the first Taiwanese company to enter the sector.
The company said the system is undergoing road tests, and preliminary results show that the system’s fuel consumption is only 33 percent to 50 percent of conventional gasoline engines.
The system is expected to enter mass production within 18 months, which will increase the company’s annual revenue by NT$10 billion within three years, Delta said.
Simon Chang (張群海), general manager of Delta’s Industrial Automation Business Unit, said with extensive design and manufacturing experience in automobile electronics components, Delta enjoys an advantage over other players in the industry when it comes to the automobile electronics market.
Chang said his company is planning to cooperate with a Chinese automobile company in manufacturing the propulsion system, in light of the vast hybrid vehicle market in China as environmental awareness continues to increase.
CSBC in power talks
CSBC Corp, Taiwan (台灣國際造船), the nation’s leading shipbuilder, said it was in talks with China Guangdong Nuclear Power Holdings Co (廣東核電集團) on possible power plant assembly orders, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported yesterday, citing CSBC chairman Cheng Wen-long (鄭文隆). The newspaper said the Kaohsiung-based shipbuilder hoped to use its experience as the containment vessel contractor for Taiwan Power Co’s (台電) third and fourth nuclear reactors to tap the nuclear power business in China, after it saw container ship orders hit by delays and cancellations amid the global economic crisis.
NT dollar declines
The New Taiwan dollar lost ground against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, declining NT$0.101 to close at NT$32.345.
A total of US$1.33 billion changed hands during the day’s trading.
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
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day