Highwealth Construction Co (興富發) plans to build affordable homes for senior citizens in the coming two years to cash in on the nation’s fast-growing aging population while soaring housing prices slow transactions.
The Taipei-based developer made the statement after its annual shareholders’ meeting, which was closed to the media after company chairman Cheng Chin-tien (鄭欽天) was questioned on Monday night by prosecutors probing bribery allegations related to an affordable housing project in Taoyuan County.
The company denied any wrongdoing, but refused to talk about the investigation, citing confidentiality because the case is ongoing.
“We will introduce affordable apartments for senior citizens in New Taipei City next year or in 2016 as these products will be in demand going forward,” Highwealth spokesman Liao Chao-hsiung (廖昭雄) said.
Senior citizens are expected to constitute 14 percent of the nation’s population in 2017 after passing the 7 percent threshold in 1993, qualifying Taiwan as an aging society, government data showed.
Liao declined to reveal the exact construction site for the affordable apartments, but said they would be priced between NT$4 million and NT$6 million each and come with two or three bedrooms, allowing sons and daughters to stay if they want.
The complex will provide paid meals, recreational activities and other services, posing management challenges, he said.
The company also plans to roll out NT$45 billion (US$1.5 billion) in new housing projects in Taipei, Greater Kaohsiung and Hsinchu this year, higher than last year’s NT$40 billion, Liao said.
In the first quarter of the year, Highwealth posted a net profit of NT$652 million, or NT$1.11 per share, representing a drop of 79.67 percent from a year earlier.
Highwealth shares have risen 7.62 percent since the beginning of the year, outperforming the building materials and construction subindex — which reflects the general performance of property stocks — which declined 8.02 percent over the same period due to uncertainties over government policies ahead of the November elections.
The latest survey conducted by Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) found that about 58 percent of Taiwanese are interested in buying a home in the second half of the year, down 7 percent from the first half, with about 50 percent saying they might delay the move until a clearer government policy emerges.
Shareholders yesterday also approved the company’s proposal to distribute NT$7 in dividends per share — NT$2 in cash and 50 percent in stock — based on earnings per share of NT$10.85 the company made last 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
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six