Sharp Corp has agreed to sell three of its overseas factories to Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) for about ￥55 billion (US$667 million), Sankei newspaper said, citing unnamed sources.
The television assembly plants are located in Mexico, Malaysia and Nanjing, China, and sale procedures will start as early as this month, Sankei reported.
Sharp said last month there was “material doubt” about its ability to survive after forecasting a record ￥450 billion, full-year loss on falling demand for its display panels.
Sharp, the maker of Aquos televisions, is selling assets and seeking investment as it cuts salaries and jobs, and offers voluntary retirements as a part of a turnaround plan.
In July, Sharp sold a stake in an LCD factory in Sakai, central Japan, to Foxconn, who will jointly operate the 10th-generation facility, the industry’s most advanced.
Sharp’s talks with Foxconn over a capital tie-up may continue beyond a March deadline, Sharp said last month. Earlier this year, the two reached a preliminary agreement on Foxconn buying a 9.9 percent stake in the Japanese electronics maker for ￥550 a share, or ￥67 billion.
SHARES PLUMMET
Negotiations on a final price have yet to be completed as Sharp’s market value declined almost 75 percent this year, to close yesterday at ￥172 per share.
Sharp president Takashi Okuda said on Nov. 1 that the company is considering various partnership options. Kyodo News said on Nov. 13 that Sharp was in final talks with Intel Corp to receive an investment of as much as ￥40 billion, while the Wall Street Journal said on Tuesday that the company is in talks with Dell Inc to arrange a capital investment of US$240 million.
Sharp hemorrhaged ￥103 billion in cash from operations in the first half of the year. The company may turn to the Japanese government for a bailout, analysts said last month.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
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