ECONOMY
S&P affirms ‘AA-’ rating
Standard & Poor’s (S&P) yesterday affirmed Taiwan’s sovereign credit rating of “AA-,” its fourth-highest grade, and forecast that the nation’s economy would grow 3.6 percent this year, and see continued growth of between 3.5 and 3.8 percent from next year through 2018. The ratings agency said that it had kept a stable outlook on the nation’s sovereign ratings, affirming its “AA-” long-term and “A-1+” short-term unsolicited issuer credit ratings. “The stable outlook reflects our expectation that Taiwan will maintain its net external asset position and that sustained economic growth will help consolidate the government’s debt position,” S&P said in a statement.
INSURANCE
FSC sees insurance growth
The number of microinsurance policyholders increased 77,000 last year and another 60,000 policyholders are expected for this year, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said yesterday. To date about 142,000 people in Taiwan have participated in a government-orchestrated microinsurance program which was launched in 2009 to provide basic protection for economically disadvantaged people, the commission said.
FINANCE
Cathay reports profit growth
Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), the nation’s largest financial services provider by assets, yesterday said its net profit grew 46.12 percent year-on-year to NT$6.59 billion (US$211 million) last month, bringing its cumulative profit for the first quarter of the year to NT$18.04 billion. The Taipei-based firm’s net profit for the first quarter was 46.55 percent higher than the same period last year, with earnings per share of NT$1.42, according to a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
MANUFACTURING
Yeong Guan eyes wind
Yeong Guan Energy Technology Group Co (永冠能源). which produces advanced casting components for specialized applications, yesterday said shipments would reach 150,000 tonnes this year, up 11.5 percent from 134,500 tonnes last year, benefiting from stable global demand for wind power turbines. Yeong Guan’s products are used in the fields of energy, industrial machinery, injection molding and medical equipment.
ENTERTAINMENT
Gamania sales show drop
Online games publisher Gamania Digital Entertainment Co (遊戲橘子) yesterday reported sales of NT$2.45 billion for the first quarter of this year, down 1.04 percent from NT$2.48 billion the previous year. On a quarterly basis, revenues rose 7.45 percent from NT$2.28 billion, Gamania said in a Taiwan Stock Exchange filing. Gamania, the Taiwan distributor of NCsoft Corp’s Lineage online fantasy game, also said it would bring new mobile and PC versions of Lineage to Android players, beginning this month.
TECHNOLOGY
Accton revenue down 5.81%
Accton Technology Corp (智邦科技), a local maker of computer network equipment, such as routers, yesterday reported consolidated revenue of NT$4.95 billion for last quarter, down 5.81 percent year-on-year. Network switches remained the company’s major sales contributor, accounting for 71.06 percent last month, while carrier access solutions made up 16.98 percent, wireless local area networks 4.15 percent, broadband and gateway devices 2.92 percent and others 4.89 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