EQUITIES
No impact from REITs: FSC
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday said that local investors would not be affected by the growing list of UK property funds that has been suspended from trading since the country’s referendum to leave the EU. The commission said these UK-linked real-estate investment trusts (REIT) are not listed in Taiwan and regulatory guidelines prohibit the sale of offshore funds investing in high-risk areas, including real estate, gold and other commodities. While the securitized REITs pose less of a concern to local investors, investment trusts and funds that buy UK properties could be in trouble, as the disposal of real estate requires a lengthy process, the commission said.
INTEREST RATES
Central bank cuts interest
The central bank said it has slashed the interest it pays financial institutions on reserves that originate from passbook and time deposits to reflect market interest rates. The central bank is to pay an interest rate of 0.146 percent on reserves from passbook deposits and 0.82 percent on reserves from time deposits, effective today, it said in a statement. The new rates represent reductions of 0.186 percent and 0.898 percent respectively. Interest is paid to financial institutions’ B accounts, which constitute 55 percent of their reserves, while the central bank does not pay interest on A accounts, which make up the remainder.
AUTOMAKERS
Sanyang eyes 25% share
Automobile and motorcycle manufacturer Sanyang Industry Co (三陽工業), which yesterday launched its new Mio 115 scooter, aims to capture 25 percent of the domestic motorcycle market this year. The company, which sells motorcycles and scooters under the SYM brand, hopes the new NT$55,000 (US$1,702) scooter will boost sales in the second half of this year. The company said it is also targeting a 30 percent share of the local passenger vehicle market. Total sales in the first five months of the year totaled NT$12.89 billion, down by 9.86 percent from the same period a year ago.
CEMENT
TCC annual loss forecast
Taiwan Cement Corp (台灣水泥) yesterday said its Hong Kong-listed subsidiary, TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團), might report an annual loss in the first half because of falling average selling prices of cement, clinker and slag powder in China. Depreciation of the yuan could also cause potential foreign exchange losses in TCC’s US dollar-denominated bank loans, Taiwan Cement said, citing TCC’s profit warning to Hong Kong’s bourse. TCC net profit totaled HK$81.1 million (US$10.45 million at the current exchange rate) in the first six months of last year, with a net loss of HK$249 million for the whole of last year.
ELECTRONICS
Synnex sales rise 14 percent
Synnex Technology International Corp (聯強國際) yesterday said consolidated sales in the second quarter rose 14 percent from a year earlier to NT$83.5 billion, after last month’s sales recorded strong annual growth of 16 percent. Asia’s largest distributor of technology products and electronics components said overall sales in the first half totaled NT$161 billion, up by 12 percent from the same period last year and setting a new record high. The company expects strong sales for the whole of this year, Synnex said.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the