BANKING
Asia-Pacific poses risk
Sluggish economic growth in the Asia-Pacific region this year is a key risk for banks in the region, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services said yesterday. Moreover, high-impact stress from China could hurt many Asia-Pacific banking systems through their direct and indirect exposures, the ratings agency said in a report. “We expect credit losses of Asia-Pacific banks to rise as growth in major regional economies is likely to slow down,” S&P credit analyst Geeta Chugh said. “China’s slowing economy has also set the stage for increasing credit losses for these banks.” While Taiwanese and Hong Kong companies are feeling pain from their China linkages, Japan’s lagging economic recovery and its central bank’s protracted accommodative monetary stance are likely to add to the stress on Japanese banks’ net interest margins, the report said.
ACQUISITIONS
No McDonald’s buyer
Shihlin Electric & Engineering Corp (士林電機) and Ambassador Hotel (國賓大飯店) yesterday rejected media reports suggesting that their parent company, Yeangder Group (仰德集團), is poised to acquire McDonald’s Corp’s 350 branches in Taiwan. In separate filings to the Taiwan Stock Exchange, the two firms said they have not been in contact with the US fast-food giant. McDonald’s last year announced plans to sell a 90 percent stake in its local operation to potential franchisees as part of its global turnaround plan.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Sigurd to pay dividend
Chip testing and packaging services provider Sigurd Microelectronics Corp (矽格) yesterday said its board has approved a plan to distribute cash dividends of NT$1.6 per share for last year. That translates into a cash dividend yield of 6.7 percent based on yesterday’s closing share price of NT$23.6 and a cash payout ratio of 75.8 percent based on last year’s earnings per share of NT$2.11. Sigurd reported a net profit of NT$751.15 million (US$22.64 million) and revenue of NT$5.05 billion. The company is scheduled to hold its annual general meeting on May 27.
SEMICONDUCTORS
VPEC posts solid sales
Gallium arsenide (GaAs) wafer foundry Visual Photonics Epitaxy Co (VPEC, 全新光電) yesterday said that sales reached NT$188.23 million last month, down 15.08 percent from NT$221.68 million in January, but up 5.51 percent from NT$178.4 million in February last year. Revenue in the first two months of the year totaled NT$409.9 million, up 23.69 percent year on year. Capital Securities Co (群益證券) is positive on VPEC’s outlook this year, aided by orders from new and existing clients. Although demand might decelerate this quarter due to a seasonal slowdown, the quarterly decline in revenue is likely to be limited this quarter and growth momentum could resume next quarter, it said.
AIRLINES
Singapore targets Taiwan
Singapore Airlines Ltd yesterday said it aims to attract more passengers in Taiwan as it expand its fleet and destinations. The carrier is looking to capitalize on an order of 67 new A350-900 jets to provide better services to Taiwanese passengers, said Nelson Low (劉家福), general manager of its Taiwan office, adding that a new service between Singapore and Duesseldorf, Germany, is set to start on July 21. The carrier may also resume non-stop flight services from Singapore to Los Angeles and New York in 2018 after seven of its jets are upgraded to A350-900ULR aircraft, he said.
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
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
Clambering hand-over-hand, sweat dripping into his eyes, a durian laborer expertly slices a cumbersome fruit from a tree before tossing it down to land with a soft thump in his colleague’s waiting arms about 15m below. Among Thailand’s most famous and lucrative exports, the pungent “king of fruits” is as distinctive in its smell as its spiky green-brown carapace, and has been farmed in the kingdom for hundreds of years. However, a vicious heat wave engulfing Southeast Asia has resulted in smaller yields and spiraling costs, with growers and sellers increasingly panicked as global warming damages the industry. “This year is a crisis,”
HIGH-TECH: As leading-edge process technologies become more complicated, only a handful of players are able to provide design services, the company’s CEO said Artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) yesterday said that revenue would grow significantly again in 2026 after adding a major AI chip customer, reversing moderation amid a product transition next year. The Taipei-based application-specific IC (ASIC) designer reiterated its strong revenue growth forecast for this year and 2026 after its stock plummeted about 23 percent to NT$3,145 from a peak of NT$4,085 on March 6 amid growing competition. Alchip said it has built strong partnerships with cloud service providers (CSP), denying that it had lost orders to smaller competitors such as Faraday Technology Corp (智原). Faraday said it has secured