TOURISM
ICASA hotel for Taichung
Cosmos Hotel & Resorts Group (天成飯店集團) plans to open a hotel in Taichung to take advantage of growing demand from young, independent travelers visiting central Taiwan. The forthcoming hotel under the ICASA (回行旅) brand is to feature 100 guest rooms in a newly completed building in the Situn District (西屯) near Fengjia Night Market (逢甲夜市), Cosmos said earlier this week. ICASA is expected to start a soft run by the end of this month, during which time guests will receive a 40 percent discount off regular rates of between NT$6,500 and NT$8,000, Cosmos said. ICASA will be the group’s second venture this year after the introduction of The Sun Dialogue Hotel (繪日之丘) in Chiayi. Cosmos recently entered a partnership agreement with a foreign peer to run its luxury resort hotel in Hualien County’s Ruisui Township (瑞穗), which is scheduled to open next year.
MANUFACTURING
Makalot sales fall 8.1%
Makalot Industrial Co (聚陽實業), a manufacturer for global clothing brands, yesterday reported its consolidated sales fell 8.1 percent to NT$1.3 billion (US$40.72 million) last month from NT$1.42 billion a year earlier. From January through last month, cumulative revenues declined 5.5 percent to NT$20.4 billion on a yearly basis, the company said in a Taiwan Stock Exchange filing, citing global brand customers’ inventory digestion since the second quarter of this year. The company said it holds a conservative sales outlook for the beginning of next year, as the demand in global apparel markets might not soon recover.
FINANCE
Fitch cautions on venture
A planned holding company that is to own 100 percent of the equity interests of Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE, 日月光半導體) and Siliconware Precision Industries Co Ltd (SPIL, 矽品精密) could see consolidated credit metrics worse than those of ASE, Fitch Ratings said. Fitch officials made the remarks on Thursday as it put ASE on negative credit watch following the Fair Trade Commission’s approval of the ASE and SPIL merger last month. The two parties’ plan to establish a holding company after the merger clears anti-trust concerns in China and the US and gained approval from the two firms’ shareholders. Fitch said the less favorable credit metrics of the holding company would be offset by a reduction in the business risk of the combined group due to stronger market share and opportunities to achieve cost and capital expenditure synergies.
GAMBLING
Macau shares fall in HK
Macau’s casino shares dropped in Hong Kong trading after Teledifusao de Macau reported the territory might require inbound travelers to disclose cash holdings of more than 120,000 Macau patacas (US$15,022) on entry. Sands China Ltd (金沙中國) shares fell 4 percent to HK$36.50, the biggest decline in 11 weeks. Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd (銀河娛樂集團) shares dropped 4.7 percent and Wynn Macau Ltd (永利澳門) slipped 4.5 percent, while the benchmark Hang Seng Index fell 1.4 percent. Analysts were split on whether news of the cash disclosure, reported after Thursday’s market close, would have a long-term effect on gaming companies. The US$30 billion gaming industry in Macau has rebounded as operators, including Wynn Macau, opened new, US billion-dollar resorts. Gross gaming revenue rose for the fourth straight month last month, the strongest year-on-year growth since February 2014.
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
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
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