CHIPMAKERS
UMC board approves plans
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 3 contract chipmaker, yesterday said that its board has approved a proposal to issue a cash dividend of NT$0.5 per share. That represents a 49.5 percent payout ratio, compared with the earnings per share of NT$1.01 that UMC recorded last year. The board also approved a plan to sell 1.27 billion new common shares via private placement, as the firm seeks to form strategic technological partnerships, UMC said. The issuance will take the form of common shares, corporate bond, or overseas depository receipts. UMC is scheduled to hold an annual shareholder’s meeting on June 11 to review both proposals.
PANEL MAKERS
TPK board tables payout plan
Touchpanel supplier TPK Holding Co (宸鴻) on Tuesday said its board has proposed paying a NT$5 per share cash dividend to shareholders on the earnings per share of NT$21.21 it posted last year, representing a 23.57 percent dividend payout ratio. The proposed dividend is far lower than the NT$21 dividend TPK paid to shareholders in 2012, when it posted earnings per share of NT$43.89. The panel supplier’s board also approved a proposal to raise about NT$6 billion (US$197.6 million) in funds through a rights issue, or global depositary receipts issuance. TPK has set an annual general meeting for May 29 in which it will seek shareholders’ approval for the proposals.
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