APPAREL
Makalot income rises
Makalot Industrial Co (聚陽) — a garment manufacturer for global clothing brands — yesterday said that its unaudited pre-tax income was NT$783.36 million (US$24.28 million) in the first three months of this year, up slightly by 0.06 percent from NT$782.92 million in the same period last year. That represented an accumulated earnings per share of NT$3.94 in the first quarter this year, the firm said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Last quarter, the company’s revenues reached a record high of NT$6.31 billion, jumping 9.12 percent from last year. Credit Suisse Group AG said in a client note last week that it expects Makalot’s earnings to be driven by its rising sportswear products and new customers in fast retailing.
GAMING
XPEC approves dividend plan
Game developer XPEC Entertainment Inc (樂陞科技) yesterday announced that its board of directors has approved a plan to distribute NT$1.5 per share in dividends, of which NT$0.15 is to be in cash with the remainder in shares, based on the net profit of NT$458.59 million, or earnings per share of NT$3.83, last year. That translates into a payout ratio of 39.16 percent. The company’s planned dividend distribution suggests a yield of 1.4 percent based on the company’s closing price of NT$107.5 on local bourse yesterday, with the stock price dropping 0.92 percent from a day earlier. However, the company said it has not ruled out raising the payout, pending shareholders’ final decision following a general assembly to take place on May 31. The company is upbeat on prospects this year, due to the pending release of a number of high-profile game titles.
INVESTMENT
Firms to stream meetings
In a bid to improve information access and transparency for retail investors, Yahoo Taiwan Holdings Inc (雅虎), Unique Satellite TV (非凡電視) and the Taipei Stock Exchange yesterday announced a partnership to provide live-streaming of important events held by companies. Live streaming of companies’ earnings conferences, material news releases and shareholders’ meetings are to be delivered through Yahoo Taiwan’s Web site and stock market app, enabling retail investors to make better decisions, the companies said.
ELECTRONICS
Lextar to buy back shares
Lextar Corp (隆達), an LED manufacturing arm of AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), yesterday announced plans to buy back its own shares from the open market in a bid to protect shareholders’ interests amid market turmoil. Lextar plans to spend NT$7.75 billion buying back 20 million of its shares, the company said in a filing with the stock exchange. The company board approved the share purchase plan at a price between NT$14 and NT$24 in the open market. The scheme is to start today and run through June 19, the firm said. Lextar said in another filing that it plans to issue 5 million new restricted shares at face value to its employees as bonuses.
ELECTRONICS
Yageo to reduce capital
Yageo Corp (國巨), one of the nation’s largest passive component makers, yesterday said that would reduce the company’s paid-in capital by 20 percent, or NT$1.29 billion, to NT$5.14 billion. About 128 million of the company’s common shares are to be taken out of circulation, while NT$2 per share would be returned to shareholders, it said. The company said that the move is aimed at improving its financial condition.
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
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],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained