SEMICONDUCTORS
Hermes reports loss
Semiconductor inspection tool and equipment maker Hermes Microvision Inc (漢微科) yesterday unexpectedly posted a loss of NT$180 million for last month, or a loss per share of NT$2.54, according to a company statement filed with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. During the same period last year, the company posted a net profit of NT$290 million, according to the statement. Revenue last month plunged 78 percent year-on-year to NT$171 million from NT$766 million. However, Hermes said order visibility was good and it expected revenue to grow significantly this quarter from last quarter.
FINANCE
Chailease posts growth
Chailease Holding Co Ltd (中租控股), the nation’s top leasing services provider, yesterday posted 5.05 percent annual growth in net profit for last month to NT$520.4 million, from NT$495.4 million. On a monthly basis, the figure represented a 16.34 percent decline from NT$622.1 million. In the first four months of this year, Chailease’s net profit climbed 8.25 percent to NT$2.23 billion, compared with NT$2.06 billion during the same period last year. The company plans to distribute a cash dividend of NT$2.8 per common share and 0.04 percent in stock dividend. The proposal is to be discussed during an annual shareholder’s meeting on Thursday.
TECHNOLOGY
Nanya sees revenue fall
Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), the nation’s top DRAM chipmaker, saw its revenue from mobile DRAM chips fall 21.6 percent to US$50 million last quarter, from US$63 million a quarter ago, primarily due to sluggish customer demand and reduced output. As a result, Nanya Technology’s share of the global mobile DRAM market shrank to 1.4 percent from 1.8 percent, according to market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技). TrendForce said it considers mobile DRAM chips a crucial driver for DRAM chipmakers, citing strong demand and good prices. The researcher said Nanya Technology was actively expanding into the mobile DRAM chip market and that the company was likely to catch up with global rivals by upgrading to 30-nanometer technology in the second half of this year. Winbond Electronics Corp (華邦電) saw its mobile DRAM chip revenue rise by 7 percent sequentially last quarter to US$33 million, maintaining its market share of 0.9 percent.
REAL ESTATE
Fubon to buy museum site
Fubon Life Insurance Co (富邦人壽) has agreed to buy the London site of the Madame Tussauds waxworks museum for £348.8 million (US$540 million) as the Taiwanese insurer seeks higher returns overseas. The property on Marylebone Road near Regent’s Park includes a 2,833m2 plot of land and a 10,898m2 building, Taipei-based Fubon said in a statement filed with the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Friday. The insurer, an arm of Taiwan’s second-biggest listed lender by market value, has received approval from the Financial Supervisory Commission to buy the property from Secure Income REIT PLC. Fubon is making its third real-estate investment in London after Taiwanese regulators eased investment restrictions to help insurance companies buy more overseas property and foreign currency bonds. Cathay Life Insurance Co earlier this month bought the Walbrook Building in the City of London financial district for £575 million in the biggest single-property purchase in the UK capital 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],”
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
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained