SOLAR POWER
Firm not probed: statement
Green Energy Technology Inc (綠能科技), the nation’s biggest solar wafer maker, said the company has not been linked to the newly launched investigation into a number of employees over insider trading, according to a company statement filed to the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Saturday. The investigation has no impact on the company’s financial status or its business, it said. On Friday, investigators searched the offices and houses of 10 high-ranking executives of Green Energy and its parent company Tatung Co (大同) after prosecutors alleged that several executives had sold Green Energy shares in 2011, just before the company slashed its financial forecast to a loss of NT$610 million (US$20.2 million) from pre-tax income of NT$3.55 for 2011. The sale is expected to have helped them prevent loss from a decline in stock price. Company chief executive officer Lin Hur-long (林和龍), president Swean Lin (林士源) and seven other company officials were released on bail on Saturday.
BANKING
Sunny bank to open in China
The Taiwan-based Sunny Bank (陽信商銀) on Saturday said it would open a financial leasing arm in Shanghai on Thursday, making it the fourth Taiwanese non-financial holding company to open a branch in China. Despite the slowing of China’s economic growth, there is a huge demand for financing from Taiwanese businesses in China, the bank said. The financial leasing arms of Shanghai Commercial & Savings Bank, Taichung Bank and Industrial Bank of Taiwan have already established branches in Shanghai. Sunny Bank said it would inject initial capital of US$17 million in the branch for financial leasing purposes.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last