AUTO PARTS
Hota reports profit drop
Hota Industrial Manufacturing Co (和大工業), which makes gears and shafts for vehicles, yesterday reported net profit of NT$255.7 million (US$8.5 million) in the first quarter, down 1.54 percent annually from NT$259.4 million a year earlier. Earnings per share dropped to NT$1.08, from NT$1.1 a year earlier, according to a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The company attributed the worse-than-expected financial performance to volatile foreign-exchange rates, which reduced profit by NT$113 million over the period due to a strong New Taiwan dollar against the US dollar.
BANKING
Samsung Pay tests begin
Seven domestic banks yesterday announced that they have begun testing Samsung Pay in a bid to prepare for the official launch of Samsung Electronics Co’s payment service before the end of the month after gaining regulatory approval in November last year. The service is available on high-end Samsung devices that have been released in the past year. For merchants, the service is compatible with older payment terminals that only support magnetic strip cards, the South Korean company said. The banks also announced promotional deals to attract subscribers.
CURRENCY
NT rises against greenback
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday rose against the US dollar, gaining NT$0.156 to close at NT$30.062, with further foreign-fund inflows motivating local traders to cut their holdings in the US currency, dealers said. A strong showing in the local equity market, on the back of aggressive foreign institutional buying and the strength of other currencies in the region increased downward pressure on the US dollar, which fell below the NT$30 mark against the New Taiwan dollar at one point, they said. Fund inflows into the Asia-Pacific region lifted other regional currencies, in particular the South Korean won, which the NT dollar tracks closely, dealers said.
E-COMMERCE
JD.com eyes PT Tokopedia
JD.com Inc (京東商城), Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s (阿里巴巴) fiercest rival in Chinese e-commerce, is in talks to make a major investment in Indonesia’s PT Tokopedia to speed its expansion into Southeast Asia’s largest economy, people familiar with the matter said. JD.com is in early-stage negotiations to invest hundreds of millions of US dollars in one of Indonesia’s largest online marketplaces, one of the people said, asking not to be identified because the deal is private. JD.com’s potential investment could propel Jakarta-based Tokopedia past a valuation of US$1 billion, another person familiar with the deal said.
TELECOMS
Softbank linked to One97
Softbank Group Corp is in talks to invest about US$1.4 billion in India’s One97 Communications Ltd in a deal that would value the owner of India’s largest digital-payments provider at about US$7 billion, people familiar with the matter said. The deal is not yet finalized and the terms might change, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private. One97 Communications, whose Paytm unit has seen business surge as India took most of its paper bills from circulation, has also had discussions with two other investors, one of the people said. The company was last valued at US$4.2 billion, according to research firm CB Insights.
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