Despite a plan to expand by more than 20 outlets in Taiwan and China this year, which may need strong capital support, the Tai Tong Food & Beverage Group (TTFB, 瓦城泰統集團) still intends to distribute a high cash payout after reporting record-high earnings for last year.
Tai Tong — the operator of three restaurant chains with 46 outlets — posted NT$185.02 million (US$6.19 million), or NT$9.53 per share, in consolidated net profit last year, up from NT$166.2 billion, or NT$9.42 per share, in 2011, the company said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.
The firm said its consolidated net profit in the period from October to December last year was NT$35.74 million, or NT$1.3 per share.
Tai Tong operates three restaurant chains specializing in Asian cuisine: Thai Town Cuisine (瓦城泰式料理), Very Thai Restaurant (非常泰) and 1010 Hunan Cuisine (1010湘辣料理).
EXPANSION
The group planned to expand its total outlets to 70 in Taiwan and China by the end of this year, with a fourth restaurant chain expected to be launched later this year.
However, Tai Tong’s board of directors yesterday approved a plan to distribute a cash dividend of NT$8.1 per share to its shareholders, driving the company’s dividend distribution rate to a level above 80 percent.
“The group has sufficient funds to cover its expansion plans and shareholder equity,” an official at the group, who declined to be named, told the Taipei Times.
YIELD
With Tai Tong’s shares closing at NT$190 yesterday on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, the cash dividend of NT$8.1 indicated a dividend yield of 4.26 percent.
The planned dividend still needs to be approved by shareholders at its annual general meeting on June 24, the company said.
Tai Tong plans to open its first Thai Town Cuisine restaurant in Shanghai in the third quarter of this year.
In Taiwan, the company is scheduled to launch various restaurant outlets in Keelung, Pingtung County and Chiayi County later this year, which would be the first time that the group opens outlets outside the major urban areas.
CHINA
Meanwhile, the group’s plan to launch a food court in China with Golden Eagle Retail Group (金鷹商貿集團) and Taiwan’s largest disperse dye manufacturer, Allied Industrial Co Ltd (中美聯合實業), is going ahead.
The first food court is scheduled to be opened in Golden Eagle’s new department store in Nanjing’s Xinjiekou area in either the fourth quarter of this year or the first quarter of next year.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
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],”