BANKING
ANZ exits Asian businesses
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ANZ) has exited the emerging corporate business in Taiwan and another four Asian countries with about 100 job cuts, a report said yesterday, citing a Melbourne-based spokesman. The report said ANZ exited from the unit that lends to small and medium-sized enterprises in Taiwan, Singapore, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Indonesia. Australia’s major banks are scrambling to improve shareholder returns and profits amid slowing revenue growth and stricter regulatory capital rules.
INSURANCE
China Life denies merger
China Life Insurance Co Ltd (中國人壽保險) yesterday denied market rumors that it is in merger talks with local financial institutions. “It’s pure media speculation,” China Life said in a statement, after the Liberty Times (sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) reported that the insurer plans to sell its shares to China Development Financial Holding Corp (CDFHC, 中華開發金控) at NT$37 per share to pave the way for a merger. Shares of China Life fell 0.4 percent to close at NT$25, while CDFHC rose 1.25 percent to NT$8.13 on the local bourse.
TECHNOLOGY
Chipbond profit falls
Chipbond Technology Corp (頎邦), a driver integrated circuit packaging and testing-service provider, yesterday reported the lowest profit in four years for last year, as major clients worked to adjust their inventories. Last year, Chipbond posted NT$2.088 billion (US$63.119 million) in net income, down 21 percent from the previous year. Earnings per share were NT$3.19 last year, the lowest since 2012. The company also released sales for the first two months, down 13.5 percent year-on-year to NT$2.433 billion. Chipbond posted NT$16.86 billion in sales for the whole of last year.
TECHNOLOGY
Memorychip prices fall
DRAM module supplier Apacer Technology Corp (宇瞻) yesterday said falling prices for memory chips caused the company’s sales to drop 27.8 percent annually to NT$7.38 billion last year, with net income nearly halved to NT$228 million, or NT$1.53 in earnings per share. The company said its board has decided to distribute a cash dividend of NT$2 per share to shareholdes, which is subject to approval at the company’s annual general meeting on June 3.
INTERNET
Online sales rise overall
PChome Online Inc (網路家庭), the nation’s largest online shopping store, yesterday said sales rose from last year, but declined from the previous month. Consolidated sales increased 17.4 percent year-on-year to NT$2.23 billion, but the figure fell 5.34 percent month-on-month, the company said in a Taiwan Stock Exchange filing. In the first two months of the year, cumulative sales totaled NT$4.59 billion, up 21.9 percent from the previous year.
OPTOELETRONICS
AUO approves share sales
AU Optronics Corp (AUO, 友達光電), the nation’s second-largest LCD panel maker, yesterday said its board approved the sale of up to 950 million common shares via a private placement to introduce strategic partners. The shares offering can also be in the form of corporate bonds for local and overseas shareholders, depending on the market situation, AUO said in a Taiwan Stock Exchange filing. The company plans to use the proceedings to invest in high-end technologies and improve its financial structure.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure