BANKING
Sale speculation dismissed
China Development Financial Holding Corp (中華開發金控) yesterday dismissed media speculation that EnTie Commercial Bank’s (安泰銀行) major shareholder aimed to sell its stake to China Development within three months. China Development said that was purely media speculation, according to the company’s statement submitted to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday. The Chinese-language Economic Daily News yesterday reported that the bank’s major shareholder, Hong Kong based private-equity firm Longreach Group, has hired Morgan Stanley to help sell its stake and targets China Development to strike a deal. EnTie Bank also said the report was speculation. In a separate statement, the bank dismissed a report that company executives have embezzled about NT$700 million (US$21.6 million). The bank said it will take legal action against the media and the reporter responsible for the report. The Chinese-language 168 Weekly (168週報) published the claim on Saturday.
PETROCHEMICALS
LCY reverses 2014 loss
LCY Chemical Corp (李長榮化學), which makes petrochemical products, reported net income of NT$594 million for last quarter, reversing a loss of NT$7.62 billion a year ago. That brought the company’s first-half net income to NT$917.59 millon, an improvement from a loss of NT$7.85 billion in the same period last year, according to a company statement released on Friday. LCY Chemical expects to book NT$6.89 billion in pre-tax income for the current quarter after its solar power affiliate, Taiwan Polysilicon Corp (福聚太陽能), declared bankruptcy last month. The gain comes from the cancelation of a NT$8.31 billion loss from Taiwan Polysilicon after the solar firm went bankrupt.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six