Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) doled out the highest average pay to its directors for 2014 of any company listed on Taiwan’s stock market, the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) said on Saturday.
Directors of the world’s largest contract chipmaker had average compensation of NT$55.51 million (US$1.65 million) for 2014, ahead of the NT$38.51 million CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控) paid on average to its board directors.
LOWEST RATIO
Yet the NT$444.11 million in total compensation that TSMC paid to its directors represented only 0.16 percent of its 2014 net income of NT$264 billion, among the lowest ratios of any listed company on the stock exchange, TWSE figures showed.
Largan Precision Co (大立光), a smartphone camera lens supplier to Apple Inc, which posted the highest earnings per share (NT$144.91) of any listed company in 2014, doled out NT$26.26 million in average compensation to its directors for the year, the fifth-highest in Taiwan, according to the TWSE’s data.
President Chain Store Corp (統一超商), which runs the 7-Eleven convenience store chain, came in third with average director compensation of NT$36.53 million, ahead of Cheng Shin Rubber Industry Co (正新橡膠) at NT$30.37 million.
Pou Chen Corp (寶成工業), a contract shoemaker for international brands such as Nike Inc, ranked sixth with average director compensation of NT$25.19 million, followed by contract computer maker Inventec Inc (英業達) at NT$20.19 million and bicycle brand Giant Manufacturing Co (巨大機械) at NT$19.51 million.
ASE IN NINTH PLACE
Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE, 日月光), the world’s largest integrated circuit packaging and testing services provider, ranked ninth at NT$17.36 million, ahead of food maker Uni-President Enterprises Corp (統一企業) at NT$16.95 million.
The TWSE said 17 listed firms did not pay compensation to their directors, although eight were profitable, including Aurora Corp (震旦行), which posted NT$3.46 in earnings per share in 2014.
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