INVESTMENTS
Formosa sells Nanya shares
Formosa Plastics Corp (台塑), the nation’s biggest producer of polyvinyl chloride, yesterday said it had sold 3.82 million shares in local DRAM chipmaker Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) for about NT$310 million (US$9.78 million). Formosa booked a gain of NT$160 million from the sale, according to a company statement filed with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The proceeds are to be used to fund the company’s operations. After the transaction, Formosa’s stake in Nanya Technology was down to 15.32 percent from 15.48 percent.
COMPONENTS
Yageo profit jumps 86%
Yageo Corp (國巨), the nation’s biggest passive components maker, yesterday said that net profit jumped 86 percent annually to NT$790 million in the final quarter of last year from NT$425 million in 2013. That brought the company’s total net profit last year to NT$3.86 billion, 2.66 times the NT$1.45 billion it made the previous year. Revenue rose 9.3 percent last year to NT$27.03 billion from NT$24.74 billion in 2013. Yageo expects demand for passive components to grow steadily, mainly driven by rising demand for 4G long-term evolution smartphones, LED lighting and automotive electronics components, according to a company statement.
TOURISM
Fair to attract more visitors
An upcoming travel fair in Taipei is expected to attract a record number of visitors based on what tourism operators see as a generally healthy travel market that is likely to continue to grow this year. The annual International Spring Travel Fair to be held at the Taipei World Trade Center’s Hall No. 1 from March 26 to March 29 could draw a record-high 220,000 visitors, about 10,000 more than last year, event organizer Chou Tsen (周岑) said yesterday. Because there are several long holiday weekends ahead, travel to Asian nations could be particularly in demand, Chou said. “We are expecting a diverse travel market customer base this spring covering all age groups,” Chou said, tipping Japan, Bali and South Korea to be the top travel destinations. Featuring about 300 exhibitors, the fair is expected to generate more business this year than the NT$550 million in sales last year, she said.
CHIP SERVICES
Powertech approves payout
Powertech Technology Inc (力成), which provides memorychip packaging and testing services, yesterday said its board had approved a NT$3 per share cash dividend. That represents a 70.76 percent in payout ratio based on the company’s net profit of NT$4.43 billion, or NT$4.24 a share, last year. The company is scheduled to hold an annual shareholders’ meeting on June 16 to gain approval to distribute the dividend.
FOREIGN EXCHANGE
NT dollar closes lower
The New Taiwan dollar dropped against its US counterpart yesterday, closing down NT$0.040 at NT$31.710 as traders were motivated by institutional selling on the local bourse to trim their earlier gains in the local currency and vault the greenback into positive territory, dealers said. The central bank’s intervention also helped the US dollar in the late trading, offsetting selling by exporters earlier in the session, the dealers said. Trading volume on the foreign exchange markets remained moderate, as many traders stayed on the sidelines ahead of a policymaking meeting scheduled by the US Federal Reserve for Tuesday and Wednesday next week, the dealers added.
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
Clambering hand-over-hand, sweat dripping into his eyes, a durian laborer expertly slices a cumbersome fruit from a tree before tossing it down to land with a soft thump in his colleague’s waiting arms about 15m below. Among Thailand’s most famous and lucrative exports, the pungent “king of fruits” is as distinctive in its smell as its spiky green-brown carapace, and has been farmed in the kingdom for hundreds of years. However, a vicious heat wave engulfing Southeast Asia has resulted in smaller yields and spiraling costs, with growers and sellers increasingly panicked as global warming damages the industry. “This year is a crisis,”
HIGH-TECH: As leading-edge process technologies become more complicated, only a handful of players are able to provide design services, the company’s CEO said Artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) yesterday said that revenue would grow significantly again in 2026 after adding a major AI chip customer, reversing moderation amid a product transition next year. The Taipei-based application-specific IC (ASIC) designer reiterated its strong revenue growth forecast for this year and 2026 after its stock plummeted about 23 percent to NT$3,145 from a peak of NT$4,085 on March 6 amid growing competition. Alchip said it has built strong partnerships with cloud service providers (CSP), denying that it had lost orders to smaller competitors such as Faraday Technology Corp (智原). Faraday said it has secured