State-funded Taiwan Asset Management Co (TAMC, 台灣金聯資產管理) posted NT$1.2 billion (US$40.68 million) in net income for the first nine months of the year, already surpassing its yearly target of NT$1.1 billion, on the back of its successful disposal of toxic assets, senior executives said yesterday.
The figures are approaching last year’s income level of NT$1.32 billion, but earnings abilities are likely to slow for the rest of the year, given the dwindling pool of bad assets, TAMC chairman Hwang Ding-fang (黃定方) said.
The same reason will drive TAMC, in which the government controls an 81.46 percent stake, to help domestic banks digest non-performing loans, to set a similar budget target of NT$1.1 billion next year, Hwang said.
The average bad loan ratio for the nation’s 37 banks dropped to 0.44 percent at the end of August, down from 0.45 percent one month earlier, the Financial Supervisory Commission said earlier this month, as lenders were cautious about business amid hazy economic visibility.
To tap new sources of income, TAMC plans to lease 122 residential apartments, storefronts, office space and plots of land in different parts of Taiwan, allowing it modest additional profits.
The rental rates are set at between 20 percent and 30 percent below market rates as TAMC aims to support the government’s housing policy and ease the financial burden on its tenants — small enterprises and young people, Hwang said.
Interested parties may file applications with the company on a first-come, first-serve basis, starting on Wednesday and lasting through Nov. 15, Hwang said, adding that there are no qualification constraints on applicants.
Rental income totaled NT$200 million as of last month, accounting for 20 percent of profits, TAMC said.
The contribution may climb to NT$360 million next year, accounting for 25 percent, the company 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],”
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
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained