TAIEX rises 0.21 percent
The TAIEX closed up 16.67 points, or 0.21 percent, at 8,076.61 yesterday,on turnover of NT$81.4 billion (US$2.75 billion).
Gains posted by financial stocks helped the local bourse fend off the impact from falling manufacturing activity in China and the eurozone, with the index closing in positive territory, dealers said.
Buying in financial heavyweights reflected high hopes that Taiwan and China would sign an agreement in the first half of this year to set up a currency settlement mechanism that would allow domestic banks to conduct yuan-denominated businesses, they said.
Wistron profits total NT$2.36bn
Local contract laptop computer maker Wistron Corp (緯創) yesterday said net profits amounted to NT$2.36 billion, or NT$1.13 per share, in the fourth quarter of last year, the company said in an e-mailed statement.
That brought last year’s net income to NT$9.07 billion, or NT$4.36 per share, for last year. Revenues amounted 658.37 billion last year.
Wistron also said the board yesterday approved the company’s plan to issue 62.8 million common shares, or 3 percent of the company’s total outstanding shares, for its employees.
Formosa Epitaxy signs loan deal
LED product supplier Formosa Epitaxy Inc (璨圓光電) yesterday announced that it has signed a NT$3.5 billion five-year syndicated loan agreement with 11 domestic banks to repay old bank loans and enrich its funds.
The syndicated loan was led by the Bank of Taiwan (台灣銀行) and another 10 financial institutions.
The company originally planned to borrow NT$2.8 billion loan.
The company planned to use the bank loans to upgrade its production technology, Formosa Epitaxy said.
Vee Time to buy Tatung unit
Local WiMAX operator Vee Time Corp (威達雲端) yesterday said it planned to acquire local peer Tatung InfoComm Co (大同電信) for NT$150 million.
That will be the second acquisition launched by Vee Time after buying Vmax Telecom Co (威邁思) for NT$391 million.
Asia Pacific profit triples
Asia Pacific Telecom Co (亞太電信), the nation’s No. 4 telecoms operator by subscriber, yesterday said net profit almost tripled to NT$10.66 billion, or NT$3.25 per share, from NT$3.67 billion, or NT$1.12 a share, a year ago.
The growth mostly came from an increase of NT$4.91 billion in its asset value, according to a company filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Revenues rose 10.23 percent to NT$25.6 billion last year, from NT$23.2 billion in 2010.
Asia Pacific Telecom has 3 million subscribers.
Nanya to set up subsidiary
Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), the nation’s top DRAM maker, said on Thursday that the board approved a plan to set up a new fully owned subsidiary for its contract chipmaking.
The new company, Sumpro Electronics Corp (勝普), operates a factory that was originally owned by Nanya Technology. The factory has a monthly capacity of 27,000 wafers.
Sumpro said it planned to expand the capacity to 45,000 wafers in the near future.
NT dollar drops slightly
The New Taiwan dollar dropped against the US dollar yesterday, down NT$0.011 to close at NT$29.585, after the local central bank intervened to boost the greenback in late trade and reverse the unit’s earlier losses, dealers said.
Turnover totaled US$763 million.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the