Investors lock in profits
Share prices closed up 0.37 percent yesterday, in line with regional gains, dealers said.
The TAIEX rose 28.39 points to 7,677.62 on turnover of NT$139.08 billion (US$4.33 billion).
Gainers outnumbered losers 1,572 to 1,155, while 262 shares remained unchanged.
“Those who bargain-hunted last Friday hoped to lock in the profits,” Mars Hsu of Grand Cathay Securities (大華證券) said.
Tingyi plans to raise NT$17.1bn
Tingyi (Cayman Islands) Holding Corp (康師傅控股) plans to raise as much as NT$17.1 billion in Taiwan Depository Receipts (TDRs), the biggest offering by an overseas Taiwanese company returning to the country’s stock market.
Tingyi, the largest noodle maker in China, plans to sell 380 million TDRs at between NT$43 and NT$45 each, said Sinopac Securities Corp (永豐金證券), its underwriter. The shares will be priced on Tuesday and start trading on Dec. 16.
Huaku wins Sindian land bid
Huaku Development Co (華固建設), the nation’s sixth-largest land developer, yesterday won a bid to acquire a 2,506 ping (8,284m²) plot of land in Sindian (新店), Taipei County, for NT$158 million (US$4.9 million), or NT$63,000 per ping, Taiwan Realty (台灣房屋) said in a press statement.
That represented a 66 percent premium on the deal’s asking price of NT$95.25 million, the statement said, adding that the land was suitable for the development of mansion projects.
Revival Asset Management Corp (力興資產) also won a bid to acquire a nine-story office building with total floor space of 1,525.4 ping in Jhonghe (中和), Taipei County, for NT$173.89 million, or NT$114,000 per ping.
That represented a 10 percent premium on its asking price of NT$158.7 million, said Taiwan Realty, which estimated the property prices in the vicinity at around NT$130,000 and NT$150,000 per ping.
These two properties are among the 64 properties put up for auction by Taiwan Financial Asset Service Corp (台灣金服) yesterday.
High-tech capital plan unveiled
The government has embarked on a project to develop the nation as a high-tech capital-raising center as part of its efforts to promote the development of the local capital market.
Vice President Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) said yesterday at a forum on company management that the Financial Supervisory Commission and other government agencies were mapping out measures to develop a financial center with what he described as “Taiwanese characteristics.”
There is a good industrial and value connection in local high-tech industries that can be used by the technology sector — one of Taiwan’s most internationally competitive — as a base for the planned center, Siew said.
Primus talking to regulators
Primus Financial Holdings Ltd (博智金融控股) and China Strategic Holdings Ltd (中策集團) are in “intensive” talks with local regulators to allay concerns that China is backing their bid for Taiwan’s Nan Shan Life Insurance Co (南山人壽), Primus co-founder Robert Morse said in a telephone interview yesterday.
The companies aim to resubmit an application next week seeking approval to buy Nan Shan, he said.
The Investment Commission asked Primus and China Strategic to provide more information about their shareholders on Nov. 13.
NT dollar inches up
The New Taiwan dollar gained ground against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, rising NT$0.029 to close at NT$32.170. Turnover was US$644 million.
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],”
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
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained