LIFE INSURERS
Firm credit quality expected
Taiwan’s major life insurers are likely to maintain stable credit quality over the next two years, Taiwan Ratings Corp (中華信評) said in a report yesterday. “Taiwan’s major life insurers share commonalities in terms of strong local market focus, stable market share and good control over distribution channels, but there are also differences in terms of market ranking, operating scale and the size of their established franchise,” said Patty Wang (王珮齡), an analyst at Taiwan Ratings, a subsidiary of Standard & Poor’s.
NETWORKING
Accton profit climbs 81.24%
Accton Technology Corp (智邦科技), a local maker of computer networking equipment such as routers, yesterday reported consolidated revenue of NT$24.74 billion (US$758.31 million) for last year, up 8.28 percent year-on-year, with net profit increasing 81.24 percent to NT$1.17 billion, or NT$2.19 per share. By product, network switches accounted for 62 percent of the company’s sales last quarter, carrier access solutions made up 20 percent, wireless local area networks 7 percent, broadband and gateway devices 2 percent and others 9 percent.
CHIPMAKERS
Sitronix eyes growth
Handset panel driver IC designer Sitronix Technology Co (矽創) yesterday said earnings per share reached NT$7.05 last year, the highest in eight years, with annual revenue of NT$9.27 billion, up 22 percent from the previous year. The company expects revenue to grow by a double-digit percentage this year, driven by smartphone driver ICs. The company has decided to pay a record-high cash dividend of NT$5 per share.
HOTELS
FIHC proposes payout
Formosa International Hotels Corp (FIHC, 晶華國際酒店集團) yesterday announced it plans to distribute a cash dividend of NT$8.872 per share, which translates into a dividend yield of 4.18 percent based on yesterday’s share price of NT$212.5. Shareholders are scheduled to meet on June 15 to vote on the payout plan. The company reported earnings of NT$1.14 billion, or NT$8.96 per share, for last year.
MANUFACTURING
Hota to pay dividend
Hota Industrial Manufacturing Co (和大工業) yesterday said its board has decided to pay a cash dividend of NT$3.2 per share, after the company reported earnings per share of NT$4.62 for last year. Shareholders are to vote on the payout plan on June 23. Daiwa Capital Markets Inc forecast sales for this year would expand on a quarter-on-quarter basis thanks to solid orders from BorgWarner Inc, Tesla Motors Inc and Punch Powertrain NV. The company, which makes gears and shafts for automobiles, reported total sales of NT$5.299 billion last year.
ELECTRONICS
Gigabyte to see weak year
Gigabyte Technology Corp (技嘉科技) is expected to see weak growth in sales during the first half of the year, Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co (元大投顧) said yesterday, citing a lack of new product launches and still-weak PC demand. Gigabyte saw sales contract 12.7 percent last quarter from the previous quarter to NT$12.22 billion, with earnings per share of NT$0.51. For the whole of last year, sales totaled NT$50.83 billion, with earnings per share of NT$3.05. Yuanta said sales might pick up from the end of the third quarter, when Intel Corp launches its new KabyLake platform.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six