TAIEX rebounds slightly
The nation’s benchmark index staged a mild rebound yesterday after a retreat in the previous session, but gains were capped amid renewed concerns over a possible default by debt-ridden Greece, dealers said.
The TAIEX closed up 19.46 points, or 0.25 percent, at 7,707.44. Turnover totaled NT$123.16 billion (US$4.16 billion).
Acer sues former CEO Lanci
Acer Inc (宏碁) sued its former president and chief executive, Gianfranco Lanci, in an Italian court for breaching a non-compete clause in his contract, the Taipei-based company said in an e-mail statement yesterday.
Acer said it believed its former CEO breached the non-compete clause when he left the company last year.
Yulon eyes larger revenues
Automaker Yulon Group (裕隆集團) yesterday said it was aiming to rake in NT$350 billion in revenues this year on strong vehicle sales and expansion across the Taiwan Strait.
The figure would represent a growth of about 25 percent from NT$280 billion last year, according to Yulon Motor Co (裕隆汽車) president Chen Kuo-rong (陳國榮).
He said the group aims to sell 5 percent, or 123,000 units, more vehicles in Taiwan this year from last year’s 114,000 units.
Vehicle sales from its Chinese joint ventures are projected to be 157,000 units this year, Chen added.
To cope with the increasing business, Yulon Group is set to hire 1,700 employees in Taiwan.
Chinatrust group posts profits
Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金控) yesterday posted NT$1.64 billion in net profits last month, nearly triple the earnings from a month earlier on stronger sales of lottery tickets and wealth management products, it said in a statement.
The figures represented a 52 percent jump from the same period last year and translated into NT$0.15 earnings per share for the first month of this year, the statement said.
Macronix reports revenue drop
Macronix International Co Ltd (旺宏電子), which supplies memory chips for Japanese game console maker Nintendo Co, yesterday said revenues decreased 20.2 percent to NT$1.67 billion last month, down from NT$2.09 billion the previous month, according to an e-mailed company statement.
That represented an annual decline of 22.4 percent from NT$2.15 billion.
Chimei Innolux mulls loans
Chimei Innolux Corp (奇美電子), Taiwan’s largest maker of LCDs, is negotiating with banks for syndicated loans worth about NT$200 billion, chief financial officer Eddie Chen (陳彥松) said yesterday.
Most of the loans would be denominated in New Taiwan dollars and the rest in US dollars, Chen said. Chimei Innolux, based in Miaoli, paid the interest on a loan due last month and has included the unpaid principal of about NT$5 billion to NT$6 billion in the current loan talks, he said.
A consortium of banks might sign a loan with Chimei Innolux as early as next month, Susan Chang (張秀蓮), chairwoman of state-owned Taiwan Financial Holdings Co (台灣金控), said yesterday in comments broadcast on UNIQUE TV (非凡電視台).
NT dollar strengthens 0.1%
The NT dollar strengthened as foreign investors added to holdings of local stocks on optimism the nation’s economic growth will remain intact.
The local currency strengthened 0.1 percent to NT$29.570 against its US counterpart, according to Taipei Forex Inc.
Turnover amounted to US$794 million.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by