Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), the nation’s largest financial services provider, yesterday posted NT$1.36 billion (US$45.45 million) in net profit for last month, slowing from NT$4.41 billion in July, the company said in a statement.
Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) made the greatest contribution, with a net income of NT$980 million last month, while Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽) reported a modest profit of NT$280 million, Cathay Financial said in the statement.
Cathay Financial’s cumulative net income totaled NT$10.98 billion in the first eight months, or earnings per share (EPS) of NT$1.03.
State-run Mega Financial Holding Co (兆豐金控) fared better, with a net income of NT$1.66 billion last month, thanks to its lending subsidiary Mega International Commercial Bank (兆豐國際商銀) that generated NT$1.45 billion in net profit, accounting for 87.34 percent, the company said in a statement.
Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控) posted NT$1.1 billion in net income last month, up modestly from NT$1.05 billion in July, the company reported yesterday, with its net profit for the first eight months totaling NT$7.71 billion, or EPS of NT$0.98, it said.
However, earnings at E. Sun Financial Holding Co (玉山金控) dropped a bit last month to NT$596.04 billion, compared with NT$611.4 million in July.
E. Sun Financial attributed the decline to a provision of NT$167 million at its banking unit E. Sun Commercial Bank (玉山銀行) to prepare for higher capital requirements.
Cumulative profits amounted to NT$5.09 billion between January and last month, or NT$1.06 per share, it said.
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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