ELECTRONICS
Samsung touts Taiwan sales
Samsung Electronics Co yesterday said its newly launched Galaxy Note 5 phablet is poised to achieve its sales target in Taiwan for the first month, as initial sales have been better-than-expected. The company said in a statement that sales of the Note 5 in the first two days following its launch in the nation were nearly 20 percent higher than those of its predecessor, the Note 4. Therefore, Samsung said it is confident that it is set to achieve its sales target of 50,000 Note 5 handsets sold in the nation during the first month, compared with 40,000 units of previous Note models.
SOLAR INDUSTRY
SAS approves share buyback
Solar wafer maker Sino-American Silicon Products Inc (SAS, 中美矽晶) yesterday said its board has approved a share buyback program in order to safeguard shareholders’ interests. The company said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange that it plans to repurchase as many as 30 million common shares, or 5.17 percent of the company’s total outstanding shares, at between NT$28 and NT$45 per share from today through Oct. 18. The latest share buyback, the biggest in the company’s history, came after SAS shares plunged about 25 percent to NT$31.05 in Taipei trading yesterday.
INTERNET
PChome to issue 7m shares
Online shopping portal PChome Online Inc (網路家庭) yesterday said it plans to raise NT$250.6 million (US$7.67 million) to finance the company’s new operations and warehouse construction. The company said in a Taiwan Stock Exchange filing that it has decided to issue 7 million new shares at NT$358 per share to increase its working capital. The company last week reported weaker-than-expected results for last quarter, with net profit declining 8 percent year-on-year and 27 percent quarter-on-quarter to NT$158 million, which CIMB Securities Ltd attributed to Pchome’s lower operating margin of 4.5 percent last quarter and a higher tax rate of 31.9 percent because of larger retained earnings.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Formosa labs tout capacity
Active pharmaceutical ingredient maker Formosa Laboratories Inc (台耀化學) on Monday said its phosphate binder production lines are running at full capacity, thanks to strong demand from new clients. With clear order visibility, sales in the second half of the year are estimated to be 45 percent higher than the first half’s NT$1.01 billion, Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co (元大投顧) said in a note yesterday. Gross margin is also expected to be higher than 30.9 percent in the second quarter due to a bigger contribution from Formosa’s active pharmaceutical ingredient business, Yuanta said. Formosa Laboratories is one of the few suppliers of the phosphate reducing drug Sevelamer globally, with an annual capacity of 350 tonnes.
BONDS
Government bonds fall
Prices of government bonds fell yesterday, pushing the 10-year yield up to its highest since May, as the central bank held its overnight rate after cutting it for five days in a row. The rate on one-day certificates of deposit was kept at 0.37 percent yesterday, according to people familiar with the matter. The rate has been lowered by 1.8 basis points over the past five days, spurring the biggest weekly drop in 10-year bond yields since 2011, as the central bank tries to revive an economy growing at its slowest pace in three years.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure