Investors stay on the sidelines
Cautious sentiment about inflation in China drove many investors to the sidelines yesterday as selling emerged in late trade in select stocks that have close business ties with China, dealers said.
The TAIEX closed down 8.48 points, or 0.09 percent, at 9,040.77, after moving between 9,021.36 and 9,099.75 on turnover of NT$131.95 billion (US$4.55 billion).
Ma invites Yahoo to set up HQ
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday invited Yahoo to set up an Asia-Pacific regional headquarters in Taiwan, which he touted as the “center of East Asia.”
Ma said Taiwan was not inferior to Singapore, site of Yahoo’s regional headquarters for Southeast Asia.
“We have very strong competitiveness, especially in terms of our connections with Northeast Asia,” Ma said while receiving Yahoo chief executive Carol Bartz.
He told Bartz that Taiwan wants to become the global headquarters of Taiwanese businesses and a regional headquarters for foreign-based multinational enterprises, as well as a world leader in innovation. Ma said Yahoo could assist Taiwan in achieving these goals.
He pointed to Taiwan’s geographical proximity to China, the world’s second-largest economy. In addition, Taiwan’s tax competitiveness has been sharpened significantly after the corporate income tax rate was cut from 25 percent to 17 percent last year to a level similar to that of Hong Kong and Singapore, he said.
Delta approves purchases
Delta Electronics Inc (台達電), the world’s largest switching power supplier, yesterday reported a first-quarter net income of NT$3.1 billion, or NT$1.3 per share.
Sales were NT$40.2 billion, the company said in a statement.
The board also approved subsidiary Delta International Holding Ltd’s plans to purchase a 100 percent stake in Boom Treasure Ltd and Ace Pillar Holding Co, in a move to own the companies’ combined 28.8 percent stake in Delta Greentech (China) Co (中達電通).
After the transaction, Delta will indirectly own about 84 percent of Delta Greentech.
Hon Hai’s profits drop
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海), a contract manufacturer for Apple Inc’s iPhone and Hewlett-Packard Co computers, on Wednesday posted its largest drop in quarterly profit for two years after higher salaries added to costs.
Fourth-quarter net income dropped 26 percent to NT$21.4 billion, according to Bloomberg data based on full-year earnings from the Taipei-based company.
Consolidated fourth-quarter revenue climbed 56 percent to a record NT$947 billion. Full-year profit climbed 1.9 percent to NT$77.2 billion and consolidated revenue was 53 percent higher at NT$3 trillion.
Quarterly net income dropped 65 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008 when the global financial crisis cut demand for computers and electronics.
NPL ratio hits new low
The nation’s non-performing loan (NPL) ratio fell to a new low of 0.55 percent at the end of last month, from 0.58 percent at the end of February, the Financial Supervisory Commission said yesterday.
Total bad loans amounted to NT$113.1 billion, shrinking NT$5.5 billion from the previous month, the commission said.
None of the nation’s 37 domestic lenders had a bad loan ratio above 2 percent of their overall lending, raising their average coverage ratio 10.04 percentage points to 172.35 percent, it said.
Profit shrinks at Macronix
Macronix International Co Ltd (旺宏電子) yesterday reported net profit of NT$1.06 billion in the first quarter, down 35 percent year-on-year and 5 percent quarter-on-quarter.
Gross margin dropped to 42 percent, compared with 47 percent a year ago and 54 percent the previous quarter, hitting the high end of the company’s previous estimate.
The company said revenue would drop to between NT$6.5 billion and NT$6.4 billion this quarter, from NT$6.57 billion last quarter, because of weakening demand for its ROM chips.
Gross margin would slide further to as low as 34 percent this quarter from last quarter’s 42 percent, it said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last