INVESTMENT
NCD auction rate falls
The weighted average interest rate in the latest auction of 364-day negotiable certificates of deposit (NCDs) by the central bank yesterday hit a record low as the domestic market remains awash in liquidity. The NCD auction to sell NT$150 billion (US$4.6 billion) of 364-day NCDs saw the average interest rate fall for a 13th straight month to 0.389 percent, compared with 0.417 percent in the previous sale. Local financial firms offered a total of NT$308.67 billion worth of funds in the bidding, lower than NT$313.62 billion in the previous sale, the central bank said.
BANKING
King’s Town posts income
King’s Town Bank (京城銀行) yesterday posted net income of NT$3.36 billion, or NT$2.8 per share, for the first 10 months of this year. The bank said it still held quality assets as of the end of last month, with a lower-than-average non-performing loan ratio of 0.03 percent and a loan coverage ratio of 1.53 percent. Capital Securities Corp (群益證券) on Monday forecast the bank’s net profit could drop 25 percent to NT$3.91 billion for this year, with earnings per share of NT$3.26, because of falling loans and asset impairment losses.
ELECTRONICS
WT gives guidance
IC distributor WT Microelectronics Co (文曄科技) yesterday said revenue for this quarter would be between NT$26.4 billion and NT$28.1 billion, compared with last quarter’s NT$28.73 billion, as companies in the semiconductor supply chain continue adjusting their inventories. Gross margin is forecast to reach 5.6 percent to 5.8 percent, compared with 5.74 percent last quarter, while the operating margin could range from 2 percent to 2.2 percent, slightly lower than last quarter’s 2.25 percent. WT reported a net profit of NT$508 million last quarter and NT$1.48 billion profit in first three quarters, or NT$3.35 per share.
SOLAR ENERGY
Motech ends run of losses
Solar cell maker Motech Industries Inc (茂迪) on Monday posted NT$45 million in net profit for last quarter, ending four straight quarterly losses, compared with losses of NT$595 million in the second quarter and NT$739 million in the same period last year. Motech attributed the improvement to recovering demand for solar products, which drove its revenue to surge 83.65 percent to NT$7.1 billion last quarter from NT$5.14 billion in the previous quarter.
FOOD AND DRINK
More Starbucks coming
President Starbucks Coffee Corp (統一星巴克) expects to increase the chain’s total number of stores to 365 by the end of this year and 400 next year. It highlighted the target yesterday while introducing two festive Christmas coffee drinks and a variety of packaged foods and cup designs for the holiday. The company also said that its loyalty reward card system is to be revamped next year to include mobile-payment options.
ROBOTICS
Delta unveils new trio
Power management system supplier Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday unveiled three industrial robots at the China International Industry Fair in Shanghai. Delta said one of its new robots, the SCARA DRS60L, could triple production efficiency at a plant as well as help conserve energy. Delta chairman Yancey Hai (海英俊) said the firm would continue to invest in smart industrial solutions and robots to help enterprises raise efficiency, reduce costs and conserve energy.
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