SEMICONDUCTORS
ASE approves NT$2 dividend
Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE, 日月光半導體), the world’s largest chip tester and packager, yesterday said its board has approved a plan to distribute NT$2 per share in cash dividends based on last year’s net profit of NT$23.59 billion (US$751.75 million). That distribution represented an about 65 percent payout ratio, based on ASE’s earnings of NT$3.07 per share last year. The board also approved a fund-raising plan to issue corporate bonds worth NT$16 billion overseas via a private placement. The proceeds are to be used to fund capital expenditures this year, replenish operating capital and repay bank loans. The cash dividend distribution and bond issuance are to be discussed during an annual shareholders’ meeting on June 23.
BATTERIES
Simplo warns revenue to fall
Simplo Technology Co (新普科技), which supplies battery packs to Apple Inc, yesterday said revenue would decline by about 23 percent this quarter to NT$14.6 billion from last quarter’s NT$19.03 billion in the worst-case scenario, citing slow demand due to seasonal factors. Net profit would also fall to between NT$713 million and NT$848 million this quarter from last quarter’s NT$1.29 billion, according to a company statement submitted to the Taiwan Stock Exchange. In a separate statement, Simplo said the board has approved the distribution of a cash dividend of NT$7 per share based on the company’s net profit of NT$3.39 billion, or NT$10.98 per share, last year. Simplo yesterday told investors that it planned to reduce its workforce by 30 percent this year due to the introduction of more automation systems and robotics after a 30 percent cut last year.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Foreign investors sell TSMC
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, last week suffered the largest foreign institutional net sell among stocks listed on the main board, the Taiwan Stock Exchange said yesterday. From March 23 to Friday last week, foreign institutional investors sold a net NT$33.25 billion worth of local shares on the main board, with the selling largely focused on TSMC, the most heavily weighted stock on the market. Foreign institutional investors sold a net 139.10 million TSMC shares last week, which sent the stock plunging 7.47 percent as semiconductor stocks on Wall Street took a beating, dealers said. The weakness of the TSMC stock partly reflected worries that the global foundry sector would miss its annual sales growth target of 12 percent this year, as shipments of US electronics brands have been affected by a stronger US dollar, dealers said.
INTERNET
Microsoft opens cloud lab
The Taiwan branch of Microsoft Corp opened a cloud solution laboratory yesterday designed to help enterprises set up and run Internet of Things-style (IoT) systems with its integrated Azure cloud services. The Azure IoT Solutions Lab is aimed at helping enterprises store and analyze large amounts of data from millions of end-user devices by providing Microsoft’s Azure IoT Suite — a series of applications designed to cut deployment time for typical IoT use cases, such as remote monitoring, asset management and predictive maintenance. The suite was announced on March 16 at Microsoft’s annual conference for its business customers and is to be available in a preview version by the end of 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
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],”
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
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