TELECOMS
Taiwan Star service launched
Taiwan Star Telecom Corp (台灣之星) yesterday launched 4G services on its newly acquired 2,600 megahertz (MHz) frequency band, joining rivals Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) and Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信). Taiwan Star president Cliff Lai (賴弦五) said the company plans to spend between NT$5 billion (US$154.15 million) and NT$6 billion on deploying 2,600MHz network in a bid to boost its population coverage to 99 percent by the end of this year. The company aims to increase its number of 4G customers by 2.5 times annually this year.
TECHNOLOGY
Joint initiative launched
FinTechBase, an initiative aimed at preparing the nation for a sweeping global trend toward the digitization of financial products and services, was launched yesterday by the Financial Supervisory Commission, the Taiwan Financial Services Roundtable and the government-backed Institute of Information Industry. The initiative, backed by a NT$1 billion fund, aims to train 2,000 new graduates and 4,000 professionals over the next three years, as well as cultivating more than 60 startup ventures specializing in financial technology, the commission said. Of the fund, NT$200 million has been raised from contributions by local financial companies, the commission said.
GAMING
IGS net profit up 230%
International Games System Co (IGS, 鈊象電子), the nation’s largest arcade and online game developer, yesterday reported better-than-expected net profit of NT$99 million for last month, up 230 percent year-on-year, with earnings per share of NT$1.43. The company released the figures after the Taiwan Stock Exchange requested it to disclose its latest financial results, as its stock price has been volatile in recent sessions. Net profit for the first quarter of the year totaled NT$261 million, or NT$3.42 percent, with revenue increasing 121.3 percent year-on-year to NT$812 million, IGS said in a filing with the exchange.
PROPERTY
Hung Poo dividend approved
Hung Poo Real Estate Development Co (宏普建設) yesterday said its board has approved a plan to distribute a cash dividend of NT$2.6 per common share to shareholders, the highest in six years. Based on the company’s closing share price of NT$26.25 in Taipei trading yesterday, the proposed dividend represents a dividend yield of 9.9 percent. The real-estate developer reported net profit of NT$1.47 billion, up 28.77 percent from 2014, with earnings per share of NT$4.41. The dividend plan amounts to a payout ratio of 58.96 percent.
STEEL
CSC shares surge
China Steel Corp (CSC, 中鋼) shares yesterday gained as much as 2.9 percent on market expectation that the company is to raise its wholesale prices again for June delivery to boost its bottom line. The nation’s largest steelmaker recently raised its domestic wholesale prices by 3.1 percent for this month’s and next month’s deliveries after a hike of 2.3 percent for last month’s contracts. “Rising iron ore prices are boosting investors’ interest in the steel sector, as more of them expect China Steel to continue to push up its wholesale product prices,” Hua Nan Securities Co (華南永昌證券) analyst Kevin Su (蘇俊宏) said. CSC shares gained 1.57 percent to close at NT$22.70 in Taipei trading.
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
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],”