INVESTMENT
Indonesia to reduce red tape
Taiwanese companies plan to invest US$3 billion in Indonesia’s iron and steel, petrochemical and shipbuilding industries, Indonesia’s Investment Coordinating Board chairman Franky Sibarani said, adding that the board is to simplify procedures for foreign investors to gain permission to conduct business there. It currently takes at least one month to acquire a permit, but Sibarani said the time could hopefully be reduced to just three hours. Taiwanese firms have invested US$1.6 billion in the country over the past five years, he said.
INVESTMENT
Yuanta plans to launch ETFs
Yuanta Securities Investment Trust Co (元大投信) plans to launch exchange-traded funds (ETFs) based on the Euro STOXX 50 Index and the Nikkei 225 Index. The investment company applied for accreditation in the two indices with the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) on March 4, the TWSE said in a statement. Yuanta’s bid for Euro STOXX 50 Index accreditation is the first of its kind in the nation aimed at the European securities market, the TWSE said.
TELECOMS
CHT approves dividends
Chunghwa Telecom Co (CHT, 中華電信) yesterday said its board approved a cash dividend of NT$5.4852 per share for shareholders this year, the highest in five years, after the nation’s largest telecoms operator made NT$5.52 in earnings per share last year. The issuance represents a 5.17 percent dividend yield based on the company’s closing price of NT$106 per share yesterday. Last year, Chunghwa Telecom distributed a cash dividend of NT$4.8564 per share.
PERIPHERALS
Adlink net profit rises 3.1%
Industrial computer peripherals supplier Adlink Technology Inc (凌華) yesterday said net profit last year increased 3.1 percent to NT$609 million (US$18.5 million), but earnings per share fell from NT$3.21 in 2014 to NT$3.03 after a capital increase. Gross and operating margins last year were flat at 41.3 percent and 8.7 percent respectively, although consolidated sales increased 12.7 percent annually to NT$9.07 billion, the company said in a statement. The company’s board has decided to distribute a cash dividend of NT$2.4 to shareholders, with a payout ratio of 79.2 percent and a cash dividend yield of 3.02 percent based on Adlink’s closing price of NT$79.6 yesterday.
SEMICONDUCTORS
VPEC mulls capital reduction
Gallium arsenide wafer foundry Visual Photonics Epitaxy Co (VPEC, 全新光電) yesterday said that it is considering reducing capital as part of efforts to boost its capital efficiency. Company spokesman Chi Hsiao-ling (紀筱玲) said its board agreed to reduce capital by NT$616.35 million, or 25 percent, to boost return on equity. VPEC’s paid-in capital is to be reduced to NT$1.849 billion and shareholders are to receive NT$2.5 per share after they approve the plan on June 21, the company said.
INVESTMENT
CTBC to cancel capital plan
The Financial Supervisory Commission approved a request by CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控) to scrap a capital increase plan. CTBC gained the commission’s approval late last year to issue 920 million shares at NT$16.8 per share to bolster its financial structure. However, the company last month applied to the commission to cancel the plan due to a volatile stock market in Taiwan. Shares closed 0.3 percent higher at NT$16.9 in Taipei trading yesterday.
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
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by