IC DESIGNERS
MediaTek revenue surges
Integrated circuit designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday posted record revenue of NT$23.02 billion (US$710,231) for last month, fueled by a stabilizing smartphone market and restocking demand. Last month’s revenue rose 7.89 percent from March and grew 52.32 percent from the previous year, the company said in a statement. In the first four months of the year, total revenue expanded 25.98 percent to NT$78.93 billion from the same period last year. Last week, the company forecast revenue this quarter would grow by between 24 percent and 32 percent quarter-on-quarter to between NT$69.3 billion and NT$73.8 billion.
PANEL MAKERS
AUO revenue declines
AU Optronics Corp (AUO, 友達光電) yesterday said its revenue for last month declined 1.7 percent from the previous month and dropped 15.5 percent from the previous year to NT$25.81 billion. That brought the panel maker’s revenue between January and last month to NT$96.95 billion, down 22.96 percent from the same period last year. Shipments of TV and PC panels contracted 6.4 percent from March to 8.93 million units, while those of small and medium-sized panels declined 7 percent to 13.7 million units, the company said.
IC EQUIPMENT
HMI posts lower sales
Electron beam wafer inspection equipment maker Hermes Microvision Inc (HMI, 漢微科) yesterday reported declining sales for last month, but said the figures were higher than the previous year as it benefited from customers’ migration to next-generation semiconductor technology. Consolidated sales dropped 39.33 percent month-on-month, but surged 153.4 percent year-on-year to NT$433 million last month, the company said.
FINANCE
Mega net income declines
State-run Mega Financial Holding Co (兆豐金控) yesterday reported that net income last month declined 4.8 percent year-on-year to NT$2.73 billion. Aggregate net income in the first quarter was NT$10.37 billion, translating to earnings per share of NT$0.75. In a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange, the company said its flagship unit, Mega International Commercial Bank (兆豐國際商銀), posted net income of NT$8.81 billion in the first four months, down 2.96 percent year-on-year.
BANKING
Fitch bullish on Basel III
Local banks are on track to meet the Basel III capital requirements and have adequate capital as a buffer against any economic challenges ahead, Fitch Ratings said in a report on Thursday. The local banking sector’s capitalization is better than it appears and the sector is not highly leveraged, as a result of tougher rules on core capital eligibility and conservative risk-weighting, Fitch said. Among local, only a few, mostly state-run banks, require additional capital to meet the 2019 Basel III requirements, Fitch said.
AUTO PARTS
Tung Thih shares plunge
Shares in Tung Thih Electronic Co (同致), the world’s third-largest supplier of smart parking systems, fell by the daily maximum yesterday to NT$480 after last month’s sales missed market expectations. Consolidated revenue dropped 19.74 percent month-on-month to NT$829 million, but rose 55.4 percent year-on-year, Tung Thih said in a statement on Thursday. The company’s sales for last month fell short of market expectations mainly due to slowing sales of SUVs.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last