May revenues up 2%: TWSE
Revenue posted by listed companies on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) for last month rose about 2 percent from a year earlier on the back of an economic recovery, the exchange said yesterday.
The TWSE said the sales growth was largely driven by rising revenue in the semiconductor, automobile and tourism sectors, while sales in the building materials, construction and online communications industries showed signs of slowing down.
Last month, the listed companies on the main board posted total sales of NT$2.21 trillion (US$73.67 billion), up NT$44.2 billion, or 2.03 percent, from a year earlier. In the first five months of this year, their cumulative sales reached NT$10.91 trillion, up 4.35 percent from a year earlier, the statistics show.
Tax inflows edge up: ministry
The nation’s tax revenue for the first five months of the year increased 0.2 percent from a year earlier to NT$708.4 billion (US$23.58 billion), the Ministry of Finance said on Wednesday.
The ministry’s Statistics Department Deputy Director Hsu Ray-lin (許瑞琳) attributed the strong performance to contributions from the securities transaction tax, business tax and commodity tax.
Revenue from the securities transaction tax climbed 30.9 percent year-on-year to NT$36.1 billion in the first five months, the ministry said.
The ministry expressed optimistim that tax revenue for this year may hit the government’s goal of NT$1.866 trillion.
FSC clears banks for China
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday approved applications by Bank of Taiwan (臺灣銀行) and CTBC Bank (中信銀行) to set up branches in Guangzhou, as the Chinese city remains a hub for Taiwanese firms with operations in China — favorable for expansion by Taiwanese banks.
The regulator also gave its go-ahead for CTBC Bank to open a sub-branch in the Shanghai free-trade zone.
Yageo board backs capital plan
Yageo Corp (國巨), the nation’s largest passive components maker, said on Wednesday that its board had approved a capital reduction plan as part of an effort to increase shareholder returns.
The company plans to cut its paid-in capital by 70 percent from NT$21.99 billion to NT$6.597 billion, while shareholders are expected to take back NT$7 per share after the capital is reduced.
Yageo slated a meeting next month to secure shareholders’ approval.
OPPO launches Find 7
China’s OPPO Mobile Telecommunications Corp (歐珀移動) launched its flagship smartphone in Taiwan on Wednesday. The 5.5-inch Find 7 is to be available in the third quarter through Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) at a price of NT$16,990 (US$566).
The Guangdong-based company shipped about 20 million smartphones last year in China for a 5 percent market share. OPPO has set up local offices in Taipei, Greater Taichung and Greater Kaohsiung.
HTC reveals Mini 2 launch
HTC Corp (宏達電) yesterday said its new HTC One Mini 2 smartphone is to go on sale in Taiwan later this month through local telecom operators, for NT$13,900 (US$463), less than last year’s One Mini, which started at NT$15,900.
The 4.5-inch One Mini 2 is a stripped-down version of the flagship HTC One M8.
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