Formosa Chemicals OKs dividend
Shareholders of Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corp (台灣化學纖維), which produces aromatics and styrenics, yesterday approved the company’s plan to distribute cash dividend of NT$2.5, based on its earnings per share of NT$4.25 it posted a year ago.
Formosa Chemicals chairman William Wong (王文淵) told shareholders that he is pessimistic about the company’s outlook this quarter because prices for its products paraxylene and styrene monomer are lower this quarter than a year ago because of oversupply in China.
Sales of the two products accounted for 32.3 percent of its revenue last year, the company said.
FSC approves investment cap
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday approved plans to raise the cap on overseas investment for securities firms from the current 40 percent to 100 percent of their net worth.
The deregulation is intended to give them more flexibility to expand overseas and grow into regional champions, the commission said.
Public more upbeat on economy
The public’s confidence on the domestic economic outlook staged a comeback this month, ending three months of decline, after the TAIEX reclaimed the 9,200-point level, a survey by Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) showed yesterday.
Optimistic respondents outnumbered pessimistic peers this month when asked about the economy and the local bourse going forward, the survey found, attributing the sentiment pickup chiefly to recent rallies in local shares.
Hwa Fong Rubber secures loan
Hwa Fong Rubber Industry Co (華豐橡膠) yesterday secured a syndicated loan from eight Taiwanese banks, that includes NT$1.2 billion (US$40 million) for its own use and US$10.76 million for its British Virgin Islands-based investment holding subsidiary, the company said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
The loan will be used by the company to fund its mid-term operations and repay bank loans, the Changhwa-based company said.
The eight lenders are led by Industrial Bank of Taiwan (台灣工業銀行), it added.
Feng Tay posts record profit
Feng Tay Enterprise Co (豐泰鞋業), which supplies about one-sixth of Nike Inc footwear, yesterday reported net profit of NT$1.32 billion, or NT$2.11 per share, for the first five months of the year, compared with the NT$638.38 million, or NT$1.02 per share, a year earlier.
From January through last month, the company’s cumulative revenue rose 20.84 percent to NT$18.1 billion from a year earlier, the company said in a filing to the stock exchange said.
The company announced on Friday last week that it would invest US$16 million in Vietnam and NT$55 million in Taiwan this year to increase production capacity.
Sanyang shares plunge
Sanyang Industrial Co (三陽工業), which makes motorcycles and cars in Taiwan, yesterday saw its shares fall by the daily maximum of 7 percent to close at NT$28.85 in Taipei trading, after the financial regulator said the company’s shares would be banned from margin trading from today.
The announcement came ahead of a potential proxy vote war in the company’s boardroom tomorrow.
The stock exchange said all transactions of the shares will have to be conducted in cash, because of Sanyang’s decision to hold its annual general meeting at a place that does not meet the government’s public safety requirements.
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