UTILITIES
Water restrictions imposed
The government is to impose a stricter water supply measure for industrial consumers from 5 percent reduction in supply to a 7.5 percent reduction beginning on Friday next week, the Water Resources Agency said yesterday. The agency said the measure would affect 1,339 industrial users in New Taipei City’s Banciao (板橋) and Linkou (林口) districts, Taoyuan and Miaoli County. The agency said the decision to expand water rationing for industrial users aims to avoid carrying out the third phase of restrictions earlier than May, as planned.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Hermes sets dividend
Semiconductor equipment maker Hermes Microvision Inc (漢微科) yesterday said it plans to distribute a NT$22 cash dividend per share this year on earnings of NT$3.24 billion (US$103.1 million), or NT$45.6 per share, it made last year. The proposed dividend represents a payout ratio of 48.25 percent, but its cash dividend yield is only 1.32 percent, based on the company’s closing price of NT$1,665 in Taipei trading yesterday. Hermes Microvision expects solid sales growth this year, up 25 percent to 35 percent from last year’s NT$7.21 billion, chief executive officer Jack Chao (招允佳) told investors on a conference call. However, sales for this quarter might decline 15 percent from last quarter due to seasonal factors, Chao said.
DEVELOPMENT
TLDC rises by daily limit
Taiwan Land Development Corp (TLDC, 台灣土地開發) yesterday saw its shares rise by the 7 percent maximum daily limit, after the company reported net profit of NT$5.3 billion, or NT$8.13 per share, for last year, thanks to revenue contribution from industrial park sales and a NT$4.5 billion one-time evaluation gain associated with its investment property portfolio. The company also raised its book value per share to NT$24.6 as of the end of last year, from NT$16.5 three months earlier, as evaluation of investment properties boosted asset values by NT$5 billion in the fourth quarter alone. TLDC said it expects growth momentum this year from tourism-related business, including the planned launches of hotel ventures in Hualien and Hsinchu.
BANKING
KTB upbeat on growth
King’s Town Bank (KTB, 京城銀行) yesterday said that its loan growth for this year would be better than the nation’s GDP growth with a moderate 2-to-3 basis points interest spread, after reporting an annual increase of 25 percent in net income to NT$5.19 billion last year. However, the lender may face a slowdown in earnings growth this year, Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co (元大投顧) said in a note, saying that fee income growth might slow because of a one-off fee booking last year made to avoid business tax. In addition, the lender’s unrealized gains dropped to about NT$1 billion last quarter from NT$2.2 billion in the previous quarter amid the declining price of its Russian debt, indicating there is less room to support its earnings growth, Yuanta said.
TOUCHPANELS
TPK rises on earnings
Touchpanel supplier TPK Holding Co (宸鴻) yesterday said sales for last month rose 3.9 percent year-on-year, but declined 33.9 percent month-on-month to NT$7.3 billion due to seasonal factors. The company’s shares rose 0.92 percent in Taipei trading yesterday after it on Tuesday reported earnings per share of NT$0.84 last year and proposed to issue a cash dividend of NT$0.50, representing a payout ratio of 59 percent.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by