Taiwanese companies are to see reduced hurdles in accessing Europe’s capital markets, as the nation’s accounting and secrecy standards have been given “adequacy” status by the European Commission, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said yesterday.
The newly approved status, which came into effect on June 21, will likely reduce redundant auditing procedures between the two sides, and reduce the time and cost to issue European global depositary receipts (GDRs), the FSC said.
Sixty-six Taiwanese companies have issued GDRs in Europe, with most of the instruments listed on the Luxembourg bourse, it said.
“Accounting reports represent a significant part of the process before local companies can access the capital markets of foreign countries. The new status will expedite much of the procedure,” Securities and Futures Bureau Deputy Director-General Sam Chang (張振山) said at a news conference.
The European Commission’s ruling implies that a level of trust on the regulatory and accounting standards on the two sides has been established, Chang said.
Therefore, a local company that has a proven track record of conforming to Taiwan’s accounting standards will no longer need to be audited by European authorities, Chang said, adding that the commission would be able to expand collaborative efforts with its peers in European member states.
Taiwan gained “accounting equivalency” status with the European Commission on Aug. 1, 2012.
As of last month, Taiwanese companies had issued about NT$38.9 billion (US$1.21 billion) of GDRs, FSC data showed.
The FSC said that while Hong Kong, Singapore and China had filed applications to gain “adequacy” status at the same time as Taiwan, they have yet to receive approval from the European Commission.
In related news, Chang said that the Taiwanese market is impervious to “spoofing,” where rogue traders attempt to profit from deceptive market orders that can compromise the integrity of a stock or futures exchange.
This is because orders placed on Taiwan’s futures and stock exchanges are matched approximately every 5 seconds, which is too slow for the high-speed spoofing activity to operate in, Chang said.
He said that the 10 percent daily limit is also a deterrence to irregular trading.
The bureau is aware that a trader has been sentenced to three years for spoofing this month by a US court, he said.
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],”