TELECOMS
Sercomm to issue dividend
Telecom equipment maker Sercomm Corp (中磊) yesterday said the company plans to distribute a NT$3 cash dividend per share this year on last year’s earnings of NT$949.3 million (US$29.98 million), or NT$4.21 per share. Based on the company’s closing price of NT$71.7 in Taipei trading yesterday, Sercomm’s cash dividend yield is 4.18 percent, which is a strong result as global government bond yields for many developed markets are still hovering at low levels. The firm’s total sales last year advanced 21.58 percent to NT$23.19 billion from 2013. Its gross margin was 15.76 percent and operating margin reached 5.09 percent, the company said in a statement. The company’s sales for this year are likely to grow 21 percent due to high demand for home gateway, smart home and fixed mobile products, with net profit of NT$1.12 billion, or NT$4.9 per share, Capital Securities Corp (群益證券) forecast.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Win predicts flat quarter
Win Semiconductors Corp (穩懋半導體) yesterday said sales for this quarter would be flat from last quarter’s NT$2.71 billion as the company continues diversifying its product mix. The foundry services provider for gallium arsenide components used in handsets said its earnings were NT$2.09 billion, or NT$2.65 per share, for last year. This year, the company expects solid growth from several demand drivers including 4G cellular migration, Wi-Fi upgrades and dual-band and fiber-optic developments.
MANUFACTURING
Giant earnings forecast up
JPMorgan Securities Ltd has revised its earnings forecasts for Giant Manufacturing Co (巨大機械), the nation’s largest bicycle maker, and adjusted its share price target from NT$255 to NT$265 after the firm’s sales in the first two months of the year rose 5.6 percent year-on-year to NT$8.71 billion. However, the brokerage is cautious about Giant’s earnings growth momentum over the next few years, saying that a lack of fundamental improvement in the outlook of Chinese business remains the biggest structural issue for the firm, JPMorgan said in a note on Tuesday.
RETAIL
Online sales increase
Momo.com Inc (富邦媒), a local online, TV and catalogue shopping company, reported that sales for the first two months of the year rose 8.86 percent year-on-year to NT$4.23 billion, while rival PChome Online Inc (網路家庭) saw its cumulative sales increase 15.3 percent to NT$3.76 billion over the same period. Given rising competition in the online shopping market, Yuanta Investment Consulting Co (元大投顧) yesterday revised downward its earnings forecast for Momo.com by 5 percent this year and next year, with a share price target of NT$315. Momo.com closed up 0.6 percent to NT$308 yesterday in Taipei trading.
FOOD & BEVERAGE
Board reshuffle at 85°C
Gourmet Master Co (美食達人), which owns bakery and coffee chain 85°C, yesterday said chairman Wu Cheng-hsueh (吳政學) would also serve as president and chief executive officer, beginning on April 1, after a management reshuffle. The company said in a Taiwan Stock Exchange filing that president and CEO James Hsieh (謝健南), who took office in January 2013, would step down to become an adviser to the company due to personal reasons. The company’s sales rose 16.92 percent year-on-year last month to NT$1.51 billion, with combined sales from January through last month increasing 14.29 percent to NT$3.12 billion.
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
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],”