FOREIGN EXCHANGE
Yuan futures to be launched
Yuan forex futures are to be launched in Taiwan on July 20, Reuters reported yesterday, citing sources. Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) Chairman William Tseng (曾銘宗) on May 7 said that the Taiwan Futures Exchange would introduce such futures contracts next month as the nation aims to become a major offshore yuan market. The report said the Taipei branches of Bank of China (中國銀行) and China Construction Bank (中國建設銀行), as well as Chang Hwa Commercial Bank (彰化銀行), Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank (台北富邦銀行), CTBC Bank (中國信託銀行), Bank SinoPac (永豐銀行) and KGI Bank (凱基銀行) would be the market makers.
TECHNOLOGY
Career eyes rise in profits
Career Technology Co Ltd (嘉聯益), one of Apple Inc’s major flexible printed circuit board suppliers for its iPad products, yesterday said its profit outlook would improve this year because of lower research and development expenses for new products. The remark by chairman Tsai Chang-ying (蔡長穎) at the company’s annual general meeting came after Career’s gross margin dropped to a record low of 6.4 percent in the first quarter, while the quarter’s operating margin was minus-4.3 percent. The firm also reported a net loss of NT$83.06 million (US$2.68 million), or NT$0.3 per share. Last year, its net income fell 37.86 percent annually to NT$407 million, or NT$1.25 per share. The company offered shareholders a cash dividend of NT$0.63 per share.
HOTELS
Ambassador to pay dividend
Ambassador Hotel Ltd (國賓大飯店) shareholders yesterday approved a company plan to pay a cash dividend of NT$0.7 per share, based on last year’s net income of NT$410.09 million, or NT$1.12 per share. The dividend payout is higher than the previous year’s NT$0.5 per share. The company’s sales from January to April totaled NT$1.194 billion, up 4.16 percent from a year earlier, while net profit in the first quarter grew 3.13 percent to NT$119.17 million, or NT$0.33 per share.
PHARMACEUTICALS
TWi given US approval
Drug developer TWi Pharmaceuticals Inc (安成) yesterday said it had received final approval from the US Food and Drug Administration on its abbreviated new drug application for an extended-release guanfacine hydrochloride tablet, which is the generic version of Shire Pharmaceutical Group PLC’s Intuniv drug for the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. TWi said in a statement that its marketing partner, Par Pharmaceuticals Inc, is to launch the product in the US immediately. According to IMS Health’s estimate, annual sales of the Guanfacine HCl ER tablet in the US were about US$751 million last year.
TEXTILES
Nan Liu expects record sales
Nonwoven fabrics maker Nan Liu Enterprise Co (南六) might report record sales this quarter due to a larger scale of operations and higher capacity utilization, while a ramp-up of its new production lines this month should maintain upward momentum next quarter, Fubon Securities Co (富邦證券) said in a note on Tuesday. In the first quarter, Nan Liu’s net profit rose 56 percent year-on-year and 29 percent quarter-on-quarter to NT$151 million, or NT$2.08 per share. Shareholders on Tuesday approved the company’s proposal to distribute a cash dividend of NT$2.8 per share, based on last year’s earnings per share of NT$5.79.
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
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