Skincare brand Dr Wu (達爾膚生醫科技) yesterday announced plans to make its market debut on the Taipei Exchange on June 16.
The company, whose shares gained 11.08 percent to NT$442.09 on the preparatory Emerging Stock Market yesterday, was founded in 2003 by dermatologist Wu Ying-chin (吳英俊) with capital of NT$282 million (US$8.6 million).
“We specialize in developing and marketing hypoallergenic skincare products,” company president Eric Wu (吳奕叡) said yesterday at a pre-listing news conference, adding that the company outsources the manufacturing of its products.
He said that virtual channels play a large role in the company’s success in China, where it has forged ties with TMall (天貓).
In addition, the company aims to increase its number of retail outlets in China from 40 to 100 by the end of this year, he said.
The company is also upbeat about capturing a greater share of Taiwan’s estimated NT$700 billion market for skincare products, Eric Wu said, adding that the company forecasts revenues to grow between 10 and 15 percent.
The company’s net income in the first quarter rose 78 percent annually to NT$67.02 million, or NT$2.38 per share, with sales reaching NT$234.12 million, a 60 percent increase from a year ago.
The earnings growth was driven by strong sales momentum in Taiwan and China, the company said, with revenue contribution rising from 2 percent in 2014 to 16 percent last year.
The company, which expanded into the Chinese market in September 2014, saw sales in the nation during the January-to-March period rise 177 percent annually to NT$33 million.
The company has decided to distribute NT$8 in dividends, consisting of NT$3 cash dividend and 50 percent stock dividend, on last year’s earnings per share of NT$8.1.
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