ASE unit to issue yuan bonds
Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE, 日月光), one of the nation’s leading IC packaging and testing service providers, is planning to issue yuan-denominated bonds in Hong Kong through its wholly owned subsidiary Anstock Ltd, underwriter Grand Cathay Securities (HK) Ltd (香港大華證券) said yesterday.
Grand Cathay said Anstock would issue a total of 650 million yuan (NT$2.93 billion) in bonds to boost ASE’s working capital.
The planned bond sale will be issued in two tranches, the underwriter said. The first will be 150 million yuan in three-year bonds with a coupon rate of 3.125 percent. The second will be 500 million yuan of five-year bonds with a coupon rate of 4.25 percent.
Anstock has not decided on a timetable for the bond issue, saying it is still tracking market conditions.
Citibank is one of the two underwriters for the bond issue.
UMC to offer advanced solution
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s second-biggest contract chipmaker, yesterday said it had completed a joint development project with Yield Microelectronics Corp (億而得微電子) to deliver the most compact multiple-time programmable non-volatile memory intellectual property (MTP NVM IP) solution for the foundry industry.
Hsinchu-based UMC said in a statement the solution would allow customers to embed more memory on an IC, increasing its versatility and lowering overall costs.
Several customers are expected to commercialize this solution using 0.18 micron process technology in the second half of the year, it added.
Yield Microelectronics is based in Jhubei City (竹北), Hsinchu County.
The two companies’ MTP NVM IP solutions using 0.35 micron/0.25 micron process technologies are already in volume production, while development of advanced 0.11 micron and below technologies are ongoing, UMC said.
Far EasTone posts flat profits
Far EasTone Telecommunications Co Ltd (遠傳電信), the nation’s No. 3 telecoms operator, yesterday reported that net profit last month edged up 0.38 percent to NT$792 million (US$26.86 million), up from NT$789 million a year ago, thanks to increases in its number of users and data service subscriptions.
Revenues expanded 20.61 percent annually to NT$6.59 billion last month, with data services revenue surging 45 percent year-on-year, from total revenues of NT$5.46 billion a year ago.
Subscriber numbers grew 3 percent annually to 6.55 million users as of last month, Far EasTone said.
On a monthly basis, the company’s net profit fell 6 percent from NT$843 million in July.
During the same period, revenues inched down 0.03 percent to NT$6.585 billion from NT$6.587 billion.
Compal’s August sales dipped
Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶電腦), the world’s No. 2 contract laptop maker, yesterday reported that revenues last month reached NT$55.07 billion, down 16 percent from the same month last year and 1.5 percent from July, according to a company statement.
Cumulative sales from January to last month were NT$444.15 billion, dropping 21 percent from the corresponding period last year.
The slump in sales was due in part to slow orders from Acer Inc (宏碁), one of its major customers which saw sluggish shipments because of a company restructuring.
Last week, Acer reported NT$31.62 billion in unconsolidated sales last month, slumping 40 percent from last year, but rising 3.05 percent from July.
Cars top luxury tax source
The Directorate-General of Customs yesterday said that revenues from a luxury tax on imported items introduced on June 1 had reached more than NT$377.07 million as of Thursday last week.
Luxury cars were the major source of tax revenue, with a total of 959 vehicles imported over the three-month period bringing in NT$376.32 million, the customs agency said.
On a monthly basis, imported goods boosted the national treasury by NT$136.59 million last month, down NT$3.38 million from a month earlier, as fewer people bought luxury cars last month with the onset of Ghost Month, a customs official said.
The Ghost Month started on July 31 and ended on Aug. 29.
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