Touch-panel manufacturer TPK Holding Co’s (宸鴻) board yesterday approved a proposal to distribute higher dividends after net profit soared to a record high last year.
The board approved the distribution of NT$21 in cash dividends per share, which translate into a payout ratio of 50 percent based on last year’s net profit of NT$13.83 billion (US$465 million), or NT$42.24 per share.
In total, TPK would pay out NT$6.87 billion in cash dividends, up from the NT$5.42 billion in combined cash and stock payouts last year, Apple Inc’s supplier said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
That implies a dividend yield of 3.53 percent, based on TPK’s stock price of NT$595 yesterday.
The payout plan still has to be approved at the annual shareholders’ meeting on May 22.
Last year, TPK distributed NT$20 per share in cash dividends and 30 percent in stock dividends, based on 2011’s net profit of NT$11.34 billion, or NT$35.81 per share.
Meanwhile, Amtran Technology Co (瑞軒科技), which assembles flat panel TVs for Vizio Inc, yesterday saw its shares soar to a three-month high after it raised its proposed cash dividend payout.
The stock closed near the 7 percent daily limit at NT$22.65, its highest level since Jan. 3, easily outperforming the benchmark index, which closed flat.
On Tuesday, Amtran’s board approved a proposal to distribute cash dividends of NT$2.5 per share based on last year’s net profit of NT$1.92 billion, or NT$2.19 per share, and accumulated earnings from previous years. That implies a dividend yield of 11 percent.
Last year, Amtran distributed a cash dividend of NT$2 per share after making a net profit of NT$1.51 a share.
Amtran’s operating margin was unchanged at 2 percent last year from 2011, while its gross margin slid to 10 percent from 12.13 percent in 2011, it said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
In January, Amtran chairman Alpha Wu (吳春發) said TV shipments would expand about 20 percent this year to 7 million units, compared with 5.8 million units last year.
The company said it planned to roll out more big-screen TVs, with 50-inch and 55-inch models among its major product lineup.
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
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