E-COMMERCE
Taobao told to comply
The Investment Commission yesterday said it would order Taobao.com (淘寶), Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s (阿里巴巴) flagship shopping Web site, to withdraw its holdings from its Taiwanese branch if the branch failed to comply with regulations when it entered Taiwan. The commission told the legislature’s Economic Committee that it is waiting for Taobao’s further clarification while an official investigation is ongoing. Earlier this month, the commission fined Alibaba NT$120,000 [US$4,100] and demanded the company to sell or close its local operations by August, because Alibaba registered itself in Taiwan as a Singaporean company when it is a Chinese company.
COMPUTERS
Ennoconn shares rise
Shares in computer peripheral device supplier Ennoconn Corp (樺漢) yesterday jumped 4.79 percent to NT$295.5, the highest in the company’s history, as investors bet the firm’s sales growth would significantly outperform local peers this year, driven by resilient business operations, exclusive support from parent company Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd (鴻海集團) and more merger and acquisition activities. Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co (元大投顧) forecast the firm’s sales would rise 92 percent year-on-year to NT$9.7 billion this year, compared with local peers’ average growth rate of 15 percent.
COMPUTERS
Asustek plans cash dividend
PC maker Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) yesterday said the firm plans a NT$17 cash dividend for shareholders this year, down from NT$19.5 it paid last year. Based on Asustek’s earnings per share of NT$26.21 last year, the proposed dividend represents a payout ratio of 64.86 percent, lower than the 67.5 percent recorded in the previous year. Based on the closing price of NT$319.5 yesterday in Taipei trading, the dividend yield is estimated to be 5.3 percent, compared with an annual interest rate of 1.35 percent to 1.4 percent on time deposits with banks.
CHIPMAKERS
SPIL to distribute dividend
Chip packager and tester Siliconware Precision Industries Co (SPIL, 矽品精密) yesterday said its board plans to distribute cash dividend of NT$3 per share this year, the highest in seven years, after the firm saw net income grow 99 percent year-on-year to NT$11.7 billion last year, or NT$3.74 per share. The proposed dividend payout translates into a yield of 5.35 percent, based on the company’s closing share price of NT$56.1 yesterday.
SEMICONDUCTORS
GlobalWafers touts dividend
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), a semiconductor foundry that mainly manufactures silicon-based semiconductors, yesterday said its board proposes to pay a cash dividend of NT$5.7 per share this year, which will be subject to shareholders’ approval at the annual general meeting on June 23. GlobalWafers reported net income of NT$2.095 billion, or NT$6.6 per share, and revenue of NT$15.92 billion for last year, according to a Taiwan Stock Exchange filing.
ELECTRONICS
LG forecasts revenue growth
LG Electronics Co said its smartphone revenue in Taiwan will grow 30 percent this year from about US$120 million last year, with a sales target of over 300,000 smartphones for the year. The company made the projection after it launched its G Flex 2 curved screen flagship smartphone in Taiwan yesterday. LG Taiwan president Lee Jee-hyung said sales of the G Flex 2 are expected to total 20,000 units in Taiwan this year.
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
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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],”
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts