President Chain Store Corp (PCSC, 統一超商), which operates the nation’s largest convenience store chain, 7-Eleven, yesterday announced it would transfer all of its icash card business to newly launched Icash Corp (愛金卡) in a bid to expand the use of the card.
The date of transfer is scheduled for April 21, with the price set at NT$25 million (US$815,610). Icash Corp — a wholly owned subsidiary of PCSC — is to create 2.5 million shares as the consideration of the transfer.
“The move is a response to the group’s future development strategy,” PCSC head of finance Tina Cheng (鄭雅云) told a press conference at the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Icash Corp administration department manager Alex Lin (林宗佑) said the company is set to expand the use of the card, which is restricted for use at 7-Eleven, to other Uni-President stores, such as drugstore chain Cosmed (康是美) and President Starbucks Coffee Corp (統一星巴克).
In the long term, owners of the cards would be able to use it as an alternative method of payment at other retailers, or even for transportation, Lin added.
The Uni-President Group (統一集團), which owns PCSC, established Icash Corp with a paid-in capital of US$300 million last year.
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) approved the company’s application to distribute electronic stored-value cards in September last year.
The approval made the card capable of being the nation’s second-largest electronic stored value card behind EasyCard, which is distributed by EasyCard Corp (悠遊卡) and used mainly by Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (台北捷運).
Foreign brokerage house Nomura International (Hong Kong) Ltd on Thursday upgraded its rating on PCSC shares to a buy, citing the company’s solid results last year and its outlook this year.
From January to September last year, PCSC’s net income totaled NT$6.57 billion, or earnings per share of NT$6.32, stock exchange data showed.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure