COMPONENTS
SPIL warns against ASE bid
Siliconware Precision Industries Co Ltd (SPIL, 矽品精密) yesterday warned of the great social and economic costs if Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE, 日月光半導體) succeeds in acquiring it. Clients are likely to divert up to NT$30 billion (US$889.94 million) worth of revenue away from the nation’s semiconductor sector, the company said in a statement. SPIL said that it had benefited from order diversions in the past when its international rivals had gone through consolidation. The impact is expected to cause up to 12,000 job losses, translating to NT$7.2 billion in consumption, SPIL said.
RETAIL
Shin Kong eyes sales growth
Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Department Store Co (新光三越百貨) expects sales across its 16 stores to rise 2 percent annually this year to NT$8.1 billion as the nation’s economic growth pace sees gradual recovery. The department store is hoping to attract more consumers following extensive renovations last year, and announced plans to launch its online shopping platform this year. The company reported that its sales last year grew 0.1 percent to NT$79.5 billion. In addition, the company is to launch its second store in China this year, in Chongqing.
Manufacturing
Casetek income up 43.8%
Casetek Holdings Ltd (鎧勝), which supplies metal casing for Apple Inc’s Macbook and iPad products, yesterday reported better-than-expected earnings results for last quarter, driven in part by the robust demand from major clients’ notebook and tablet products. Casetek’s net income reached NT$2.16 billion, soaring 43.8 percent year-on-year and 33.8 percent quarter-on-quarter, according to the firm’s filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Earnings per share were NT$6.36 last quarter, marking the highest quarterly performance in the company’s history. The company’s combined net profit totaled NT$5.63 billion, or NT$16.53 per share, up 14.5 percent from NT$4.92 billion made in the previous year.
RETAIL
FTC approves merger
The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) yesterday approved the acquisition of the Matsusei supermarket chain (松青超市) by Chuan Lian Enterprise Co Ltd (全聯實業), which operates Pxmart (全聯福利中心). The commission classified the NT$450 million deal as horizontal integration, and said that the merger would not raise concerns of collusion due to the large number of other retailers available to consumers. The commission added that Matsusei employees have been granted priority if they choose to continue working at Pxmart.
COMPONENTS
Vangaurd touts dividends
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進), which makes display driver integrated circuits for flat panels, yesterday said that it is to pay cash dividends of NT$2.6 per share this year. At the closing price of NT$40.85 yesterday, the payout translates to a cash dividend yield of 6.36 percent. The company reported that its net income last year dropped 23.5 percent annually to NT$4.16 billion. Earnings per share were NT$2.53. Due to lingering global macroeconomic factors, the company said that it is conservative on its earnings prospects for this year.
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