Alibaba IPO pushed back
The highly anticipated US initial public offering (IPO) by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) is set to take place after Sept. 1, Xinhua news agency yesterday quoted an anonymous source as saying.
The source said the roadshow for the IPO was originally scheduled for later this month, but would be postponed until after the US Labor Day holiday, Xinhua reported.
“If not delayed, the roadshow — to last about two weeks — might coincide with Wall Street’s traditional vacation time,” the source was quoted as saying. “Alibaba does not want to make the IPO process too hasty.”
Analysts say the offering could raise about US$15 billion or even more — putting it on par with Facebook Inc’s US$16 billion IPO in 2012 — and could value the firm between US$100 billion and US$200 billion or higher.
FSC advises diversification
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) on Thursday urged domestic lenders to avoid saturation in real-estate loans to diversify credit risks.
The commission made clear that mortgage loans for second homes are subject to higher capital adequacy ratios of 100 percent, compared with 45 percent for first homes. Banks must conduct credit checks to make sure only one home is qualified for the lower requirement for an individual, as homeowners may apply for loans with different lenders, the regulator said.
The number of banks with heavy property loans dropped to five in May this year from 17 in 2011, it said, adding that real estate lending fell by NT$142.9 billion (US$4.7 billion) between the end of 2010 and May.
ASE plans ‘green bond’ issue
Semiconductor packaging and testing firm Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE, 日月光) plans to issue US$300 million in “green bonds” to fulfill its corporate responsibility in environmental protection.
The company said in a statement on Thursday that it had priced the bonds, due in 2017, at a coupon rate of 2.125 percent and would use the proceeds to fund environmentally friendly projects, including green building construction, wastewater recycling facilities and others that promote wastewater management and energy efficiency in manufacturing.
The bonds are to be issued on July 24 and be listed on the Singapore Exchange, ASE said.
Tech sector upbeat for Q3
More global information and communication technology companies had a more optimistic outlook overall for the third quarter of the year than they held for the previous quarter, a survey conducted by the Taipei Computer Association found.
In a statement released yesterday, the association said both buyer and exhibitor indices rose in the second quarter, indicating a warming economy.
The survey was conducted from June 3 to June 7 among 1,025 local suppliers exhibiting at Computex Taipei, the world’s second-largest computer trade show, and among 1,759 international buyers visiting the show this year.
HTC leads in buyer desire
As of Wednesday, HTC Corp (宏達電) was winning a poll for the most desirable smartphone brand, followed by world leader Samsung Electronics Co, the ongoing survey showed.
The poll conducted by UK-based magazine Mobile Choice has so far found that 25.8 percent of the respondents said they would like their next handset to come from HTC, while 21.3 percent chose Samsung and 17.9 percent preferred handsets from Apple Inc.
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