RETAIL
FamilyMart ‘not in Ting Hsin’
Taiwan FamilyMart Co (全家便利商店) yesterday said that the company is not part of the Ting Hsin International Group (頂新集團), as a controversial court ruling that acquitted executives of charges related to violations of the nation’s food safety law once again sparked boycotts against businesses operated by the conglomerate. Taiwan FamilyMart Co said that it is primarily controlled by its Japan-based parent company, FamilyMart Co, Ltd, which holds a 47.44 percent stake. Other major shareholders include Taisun Enterprises (泰山企業) with a 20.51 percent stake, Kuang-chuan Dairy Farm (光泉牧場) with 5.29 percent and Fubon Life Insurance Co (富邦人壽) with 2.45 percent.
SEMICONDUCTORS
TSMC sells Motech stake
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the nation’s biggest contract chipmaker, yesterday said it has sold a 6 percent stake in local solar cell maker Motech Industries Inc (茂迪) for NT$1.2 billion. TSMC books a gain of NT$202 million from the deal, the company said in a filing submitted to the Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp. After the sale, the chipmaker still owns 12 percent of the solar cell maker, according to the filing. TSMC plans to gradually sell all of its stake in Motech.
MACROECONOMY
Slowdown hits graduates
The slow economy has affected the chances of employment for new college graduates, with 35 percent of them still looking for their first full-time jobs, according to the results of a survey by online job broker 1111 Job Bank published yesterday. In its survey of this year’s college graduates, found that the figure represented an increase of 6 percentage points from the 29 percent in the same period last year. Also, up to 28.7 percent of them have changed their jobs more than once, or 1.6 jobs in average. The three major reasons for leaving their jobs were dissatisfaction with the salary and fringe benefits, low sense of achievement and lack of opportunity for promotion. Monthly wages for new graduates this year averaged NT$27,324 (US$837), a new high in three years, the survey found. That was an increase of NT$1,180, or 4.5 percent, from NT$26,144 last year.
ENTERTAINMENT
‘Star Wars’ attracts investors
For about a decade, ever since the DVD market started to implode, movie studios have been investor afterthoughts. However, at Walt Disney Co, at least for the moment, that conventional wisdom has been flipped. Movies — in particular Star Wars: The Force Awakens — have started to drive Disney’s stock. Wall Street expects Star Wars: The Force Awakens to take in at least US$1.5 billion worldwide. The exuberant expectations have, in effect, shifted the conversation about Disney, analysts say, toward a movie’s potential to deliver otherworldly riches and away from the challenges buffeting the broader cable and broadcast television businesses.
STOCK MARKET
TAIEX falls 0.93%
The TAIEX yesterday shed 0.93 percent to 8,320.61, as the market was overshadowed by fear of a possible interest rate rise in the US and by global index provider MSCI Inc’s cutting of Taiwan’s weighting in three of its indices. Turnover during the session was NT$132.32 billion (US$4.05 billion), the largest volume since late August. The weighting cut imposed an impact on most large-cap stocks. However, biotech stocks had a rather eye-catching performance, led by OBI Pharma, Inc (浩鼎), which surged 9.92 percent.
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