STOCK MARKET
Companies’ revenues dip
The combined revenues of Taiwan’s listed companies totaled NT$28.6 trillion (US$850.56 billion) last year, representing an annual decline of 0.76 percent, or NT$214.4 billion, from a year earlier, statistics released yesterday from the Taiwan Stock Exchange showed. A total of 346 listed companies saw their revenue grow from a year ago, while 479 faced a decline in revenue last year, the statistics showed. The Taiwan Stock Exchange said decreasing revenues in the nation’s stainless steel and petrochemical companies last year were mainly dragged down by the continued falling prices of basic metals and crude oil.
ENTERTAINMENT
Cayenne eyes Q1 profit
Cayenne Entertainment Technology Co (紅心辣椒) yesterday said that it expects to swing to profit this quarter on the back of the launches of new online games. The company has yet to release its earnings result for last year, but said it is to write-off impairment assets for last quarter. The company’s net losses totaled NT$238.25 million in the first three quarters of last year, which represents a loss per share of NT$8.61, compared with its net income of NT$37.34 million over the same period in the previous year. Cayenne said that after writing off all the impairment assets, the firm is expected to turn profitable this quarter.
ENTERTAINMENT
Wanin touts new HQ
Wanin International Co (網銀國際) yesterday said that its new headquarters in the Taichung Software Park (台中軟體園區) is expected to become operational and create 615 job opportunities by the end of next year. The online game software developer said that it has invested NT$1 billion in the new headquarters and expects the annual production value to reach NT$300 million when the construction is completed. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Export Processing Zone Administration said it expects more software companies to establish themselves in the Taichung Software Park following the entry of Wanin and to gradually form an industry cluster in the area.
TELECOMS
4G tourist card launched
Telecom operator Taiwan Star Telecom Co (台灣之星) has launched the nation’s first pre-paid 4G card for foreign tourists by charging users the same rates as its 3G services. Taiwan Star said that it expects subscriptions to surge 35 percent during the Lunar New Year holiday due to a nationwide increase in tourism. The pre-paid 4G card is expected to help the company take a 20 percent share of Taiwan’s total pre-paid card sales for foreign tourists this year, the company said in a statement released on Tuesday. The telecom company said that it plans to roll out pre-paid 4G cards for local consumers in the second quarter of this year.
Banking
E.Sun reports income boost
E.Sun Financial Holding Co (玉山金控) yesterday reported that its net income for last year increased 22.4 percent to NT$12.85 billion. Earnings per share was at NT$1.63. However, earnings last month dipped by nearly NT$700 million sequentially to NT$354.43 million, as the bank-focused group wrote off bad debts and non- performing loans to improve its asset quality. Meanwhile, E.Sun Commercial Bank (玉山銀行) announced that its branch in Shenzhen has received approval from Chinese regulators to become a subsidiary, marking a first among Taiwanese banks with operations in China.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San