BANKING
OBU assets listed
The 62 offshore banking units (OBUs) of banks operating in Taiwan posted total assets of US$181.924 billion last month, down US$5.083 billion, or 2.7 percent, from the previous month, the central bank said in a statement yesterday. The OBUs of 37 Taiwanese banks held US$157.204 billion in assets, while US$24.72 billion in assets were held by the OBUs of 25 foreign banks, the central bank said, without elaborating on the decline in total assets. The OBUs’ lending made up about 44.9 percent of their total assets, with interbank lending and deposits accounting for 18.7 percent. Securities investments accounted for an additional 16.2 percent, the central bank said.
ELECTRONICS
Winbond reports earnings
Winbond Electronics Corp (華邦電子) yesterday reported earnings per share of NT$0.9 for the whole of last year, compared with NT$0.83 the previous year. Net income rose 7 percent year-on-year to NT$3.29 billion (US$97.92 million) last year, with consolidated revenue increasing 1 percent to NT$38.35 billion — its highest in five years — and gross margin moving up 3 pecentage points to 31 percent, the company said in a statement. Specialty DRAM chips are Winbond’s biggest revenue source, providing more than 50 percent of its overall revenue last year.
WEDDING SERVICES
Clevo acquires Da Lue stake
PC maker Clevo Co (藍天) yesterday said it had acquired a 5 percent stake in Da Lue International Holding Co Ltd (大略), a Cayman Islands-registered wedding services provider, with a view to developing wedding-related business in China. Clevo, which operates Buynow (百腦匯) computer and electronics chain stores in China, said it is upbeat over Da Lue’s business prospects in China this year, after the wedding services provider reported earnings per share of NT$5.2 last year, an annual increase of 171 percent from 2014.
LIGHTING
Global reports record sales
Global Lighting Technologies Inc (茂林光電), a light guide plate maker, yesterday reported record-high sales results for last year and said it expects sales to grow this year on growing orders and capacity expansion. The Cayman Islands-registered company said earnings per share were NT$6.5 last year, with revenue of NT$7.06 billion and gross margin of 24 percent. The company said its new plant in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼) is expected to start operations in the second quarter of this year. Analysts expect the company’s revenue to grow by between 10 and 20 percent to NT$8 billion this year, due to rising demand for large-sized TVs and Apple Inc computers.
FOOD
Wei Chuan to sell stakes
Wei Chuan Foods Corp (味全食品) yesterday said its board agreed to sell its 34 percent stakes in two subsidiaries that distribute coffee products made by Japan’s UCC Ueshima Coffee Co Ltd. The stakes are to be sold back to the Japanese company’s Singapore-based subsidiary, UCC Asia Pacific PTE Ltd, Wei Chuan said in a statement. The announcement came after UCC products were included in a boycott of products associated with scandal-ridden Ting Hsin International Group (頂新集團) last year. Wei Chuan, a subsidiary of Ting Hsin, said that it is to focus on its core food business and did not specify prices involved in the deal.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last