Nation is No. 5 net creditor
The nation’s international investments recorded a net asset position of US$850.9 billion as of the end of last year, making Taiwan the fifth-largest net creditor after Japan, China, Germany and Switzerland, the central bank said yesterday.
A nation’s international investment position is the balance sheet of the stock of residents’ financial assets and liabilities to the rest of the world.
Last year’s figures were up US$44.9 billion, or 5.6 percent, from US$8.6 billion recorded a year earlier, and marked the highest level in history, the central bank said in its latest report.
This was attributable to increases both in banks’ overseas deposits and in investment in overseas debt securities by insurance companies, the report said.
Taiwan’s total external assets grew by US$131.2 billion, or 10 percent, to US$1,437.9 billion at the end of last year from a year earlier, with total external liabilities standing at US$587 billion, up 17.3 percent from 2012.
TWi targets UK holding firm
TWi Pharmaceuticals Inc (安成), which focuses on developing specialty generic prescription drugs for the US market, yesterday said its board had approved a plan to establish a holding company in the UK.
The company plans to spend no more than US$20 million in setting up the holding company, according to its filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
The move aims to help development of injectable medicines while diversifying operational risks, the filing said. The investment still needs approval from the Investment Commission under the Ministry of Economic Affairs, it said.
MediaTek Inc adds real estate
Handset chip developer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) on Thursday signed an agreement with Neo Solar Power Corp (新日光) to buy the solar-cell maker’s property in Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學工業園區) for NT$410 million (US$13.67 million).
MediaTek said the company plans to use the property for self-use office buildings, a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange said.
Neo Solar said it would book a NT$70 million gain from the property disposal as the company continues working to revitalize its idle assets.
Analysts upbeat on FPCB firms
Three major Taiwanese suppliers of Apple Inc’s flexible printed circuit boards (FPCBs) may have the worst behind them after posting flat to slightly better sales results for last month, analysts said.
Based on companies’ filings with the Taiwan Stock Exchange, Career Technology Co’s (嘉聯益) sales registered increases of 5.8 percent month-on-month and 29.6 percent year-on-year to NT$1.14 billion, while Zhen Ding Technology Holding Ltd (臻鼎) posted a 1.1 percent monthly decrease, but 15 percent annual increase in sales to NT$5.24 billion last month.
Flexium Interconnect Inc (台郡), meanwhile, saw sales rise 16.8 percent from April, but fall 21.6 percent from May last year to NT$709 million.
GioVision dividends approved
Digital surveillance equipment supplier GioVision Inc (奇偶) on Thursday said shareholders approved a plan to distribute a cash dividend of NT$7.2 per share and a stock dividend of 10 percent after earnings grew 14.72 percent to NT$582.19 million (US$19.38 million) last year, its highest since 2008.
The dividend payout translates into a cash payout ratio of 78.69 percent and a cash and stock payout ratio of 89.62 percent, based on the company’s earnings per share of NT$9.15 for last year.
In the first five months of the year, cumulative sales totaled NT$921.07 million, up 3.54 percent from a year earlier.
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