ENTERTAINMENT
IC approves XPEC stake sale
The Investment Commission (IC) yesterday approved Bai Chi Gan Tou Digital Entertainment Co’s (百尺竿頭數位娛樂) acquisition of a major stake in local game developer XPEC Entertainment Inc (樂陞科技) for NT$4.86 billion (US$151.54 million). Bai Chi, which acquired a 5.29 percent stake in XPEC via a private placement in November last year, last month offered to buy an additional 38 million shares, or an about 25.71 percent stake, in XPEC at NT$128 per share. After the transaction, Bai Chi is to own a 31.1 percent stake in XPEC. The commission also approved Hon Hai Precision Industry Co’s (鴻海精密) plan to invest US$1.5 billion in China to produce mobile phones and handset components.
STEELMAKERS
US hikes tariffs for five firms
The US Department of Commerce has raised an anti-dumping tariff against five Taiwanese exporters who ship corrosion-resistant steel products to the US, citing a correction to a ministerial error in an earlier ruling. In a statement released by the Ministry of Economic Affairs on Thursday, the ministry said that the department corrected a previous decision made in May by raising the financial burden on five Taiwanese steel exporters from 3.77 percent to 10.34 percent. The five firms include Yieh Phui Enterprise Co (燁輝), Prosperity Tieh Enterprise Co (裕鐵) and Synn Industrial Co (欣建), the ministry said.
FOOD
Namchow sees profit rise
Namchow Chemical Industrial Co (南僑化學工業), a leading cooking oil manufacturer, yesterday reported net profit of NT$124 million for last month, according to a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The firm’s cumulative profit in the first half of this year rose 5.9 percent annually to a record high of NT$631 million, with earnings per share rising from last year’s NT$2.4 to NT$2.54. The firm attributed the strong profit growth this year to higher sales, mainly in China.
PHARMACEUTICALS
No liabilities in suit: TWi
TWi Pharmaceuticals Inc (安成國際藥業) yesterday said that it is not exposed to liabilities from a patent infringement lawsuit initiated by Allergan PLC, as the product involved in the case has not received commercial approval from US health regulators. The lawsuit came as TWi was seeking the US Food and Drug Administration’s approval to manufacture a generic of Retasis, an immunosuppressant drug widely used in organ transplantation to prevent rejection, TWi said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. TWi was seeking a judgement of non-infringement of patented drugs listed in the agency’s Approved Drug Products with Therapeutic Equivalence Evaluations, commonly known as the Orange Book.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Book-to-bill ratio falls to 1
The book-to-bill ratio for North America-based semiconductor equipment manufacturers decreased from 1.09 in May to 1 last month, statistics released by Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) showed on Thursday. A ratio of 1 means that US$100 worth of orders were received for every US$100 of products billed in the month. It was the seventh consecutive month that the ratio stood at or above 1 percent, which implies a more optimistic outlook. “Although order activity slowed for the most recent month, billings activity for equipment companies based in North America are at their highest level since February 2011,” SEMI president and CEO Denny McGuirk said in a statement.
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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