RESTAURANTS
McDonald’s deal approved
The Investment Commission yesterday approved McDonald’s Restaurant Operations Inc’s application to transfer its operations in Taiwan to Kingsdale Corp (德昱股份有限公司) for a NT$5.09 billion (US$168.71 million) payment. Ambassador Hotel Ltd (國賓大飯店) president Hubert Lee (李昌霖) holds an undisclosed stake in Kingsdale, a commission official said. Given Lee’s holdings in the hotel and restaurant industry, Kingsdale’s investment still has to be approved by the Fair Trade Commission, the official said.
EQUITIES
TWSE to relax SBL rules
The Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) is to relax its eligibility requirements for securities borrowing and lending (SBL) on July 31 to further encourage trading activity. The new rules would allow all foreign institutional investors — instead of specific offshore foreign institutional investors — to participate in the exchange’s SBL system. The relaxation is aimed at helping the local bourse better align with international market standards, the TWSE said.
FOOD
Namchow plans spinoff
Namchow Chemical Industrial Co (南僑化工) yesterday said its board has approved a plan to separate its oil and non-oil business units into two fully owned subsidiaries, in a bid to transform the 65-year-old foodmaker into a holding company. The planned spinoff, which aims to improve operating efficiency and raise competitiveness, is scheduled to take effect on Aug. 1, the firm said. The company will remain listed and existing shareholders’ interests would not be affected by the plan, Namchow officials told a news conference.
BANKING
O-Bank to go public in May
O-Bank (王道商業銀行) yesterday said it would make its debut on the Taiwan Stock Exchange in May. The former industrial bank said it aims to become the nation’s largest digitally focused retail bank after its transformation into a commercial bank this year, adding that it is to launch wealth management services employing robots and data analysis next month. O-Bank’s subsidiaries include China Bills Finance Corp (中華票券金融) and IBT Securities Co (台灣工銀證券).
DERIVATIVES
TRF disputes said doubled
The Financial Supervisory Commission yesterday said that the number of disputes over yuan-linked target redemption forwards (TRF) have doubled since September last year, as more investors affected by the derivative instrument took action amid rising media coverage. The number of TRF-related cases surged by about 200 from the 203 recorded at the end of September last year, the commission said. However, the commission warned of potential moral hazard, as some of the new cases were raised by investors who did not follow through with the mediation and arbitration processes that they had initiated.
RESTAURANTS
Alexander’s to quit in May
Alexander’s Steakhouse, a Cupertino, California-based fine-dining restaurant brand, yesterday said it would withdraw from the local market in May, after a disagreement with its local partner, Tonlin Department Store Co (統領百貨). Tonlin became impatient about the joint venture’s losses less than two years after introducing it to Taiwan, Alexander’s public relations official Ivy Hsiao (蕭艾雯) said by telephone. The Taipei steakhouse would keep serving meals until May 21, Hsiao said, adding that the closure would affect more than 40 employees.
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