ELECTRONICS
Kaimei bid fails
Aluminum electrolytic capacitor maker Kaimei Electronic Corp (凱美) yesterday said it failed to buy a 45 percent stake of Ta-i Technology Co (大毅) through a tender offer, as Kaimei could not acquire more than 5 percent of Ta-i’s shares on the open market from Jan. 20 through yesterday as required. Last month, Kaimei said it was to buy 79 million shares of Ta-i at NT$24.76 per share via a tender offer. The move prompted Ta-i to announce a buyback of 10,000,000 shares, or a 5.7 percent stake, on the open market at NT$15.5 to NT$29.5 per share from Jan. 23 to March 22 to defend its ownership. Kaimei said in a Taiwan Stock Exchange filing that it had acquired less than 3 percent of Ta-i shares during the tender offer period and thus did not meet the minimum tender condition of a 5 percent threshold. Ta-i shares fell 8.1 percent to NT$24.9 yesterday, while Kaimei dropped 0.6 percent to NT$15.9.
ONLINE RETAIL
Momo venture announced
Momo.com Inc (富邦媒體) yesterday announced that it is to form a joint venture with Malaysia’s Pavilion Trading Enterprise Sdn Bhd to expand the Taiwanese company’s presence in Malaysia. The joint venture is to operate TV, online and catalog shopping under the Momo brand in the third quarter of this year, the company said in a news release. The joint venture will have paid-in capital of NT$400 million (US$13.01 million), the company said, adding that it plans to spend NT$180 million to acquire a 45 percent stake.
GAMES
XPEC suit applications open
The Securities and Futures Investors Protection Center yesterday said it would start accepting applications from XPEC Entertainment Inc (樂陞科技) investors who want to file a civil lawsuit against former XPEC chairman Arron Hsu (許金龍) and other company officials. Hsu and others were indicted on Jan. 24 for allegedly manipulating the XPEC stock price and submitting false financial statements to exchange regulators. The center said the applications will be accepted until March 31.
LIGHTING
Depo secures loan
Automotive lighting supplier Depo Auto Parts Industrial Co (帝寶工業) yesterday secured a US$144 million syndicated loan from eight local banks led by Bank of Taiwan (臺灣銀行). The fund is to repay old bank loans and bolster its operating capital in the medium term, according to a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The company said its new plant in China’s Jiangsu Province is to start mass production this year.
GOVERNMENT
Luggage rules unveiled
The government will introduce new regulations on the safety of suitcases and other types of luggage, implementing a mandatory inspection of such items before they are put on sale, the Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection said yesterday. The inspections, to begin on Wednesday next week, are to apply to wheeled luggage with fixed frames to ensure that they conform to safety regulations and protect consumers’ rights, the bureau said. The inspections will involve checking the quality of zippers, handles, wheels and material, it said. Luggage products will be examined before they are allowed on the market and are to have an inspection certification sticker displayed on them if they pass the process, it said. Merchants found selling luggage without the stickers will be subject to fines of between NT$200,000 and NT$2 million, it said.
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