Chinese funds are eyeing stakes in Taiwan’s hotels, restaurants and healthcare establishments, as booming cross-strait tourism presents massive business opportunities, UBS Taiwan said yesterday.
Taiwan and China will step up exchanges this year after political uncertainty settles in China, which is positive for cross-strait tourism and investment activity, Jerry Guo (郭嘉宏), head of investment banking at UBS Securities in Taipei, said at an annual media briefing.
Chinese funds are interested in strategic partnerships with Taiwanese hotels, restaurants, and healthcare providers, and some may make their moves this year, Guo said.
The acquisition of a 20 percent stake in Taiwan’s Vigor Kobo (維格餅家) in November last year by China’s Fosun Group (復星集團) was the first business alliance in the food sector, Guo said.
The strategic cooperation allows Vigor Kobo access to the massive Chinese food market and allows the Chinese investor to capitalize on the local baker’s rapid expansion, as its pineapple pastries are considered a must-have souvenir among Chinese tourists, Guo said.
Quite a few Taiwanese restaurants are attractive investment targets and so are hotels near popular tourist resorts, Guo said, refusing to name any.
“Partnerships with Chinese investors would guarantee more Chinese guests, which would boost revenues and earnings for local hotel and restaurant operators,” he said.
Local health and skincare establishments also make strong investment targets because they offer better quality services than their Chinese counterparts, Guo said.
UBS Taiwan, which commands the leadership position in terms of wealth management for high net worth clients in the nation, expects the TAIEX to peak in the second quarter at about 8,200, from 7,695.99 at the close of trading yesterday, said William Dong (董成康), head of equities and research.
The main index is likely to trade in a tight range until the end of the Lunar New Year holidays in the middle of next month, he said.
The main index may pick up after that, thanks to an improved outlook for the economy at home and abroad, Dong said, adding that Taiwan’s GDP is likely to grow 3.7 percent this year, from an estimated 1 percent last year.
Lingering uncertainty over the pace of recovery and pricing competition among major technology firms may cast a shadow over the local bourse in the third quarter, he said.
Frank Suen (孫宇文), head of the firm’s foreign exchange division, said a currency war is in place after the US, Europe and Japan embarked on aggressive money-printing operations to stimulate growth.
Central banks in Asia, including Taiwan’s, are watching closely, but may not adopt drastic response measures given the improved economic fundamentals, Suen 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