INSURANCE
Taiwan Life fined NT$6m
The Financial Supervisory Commission yesterday fined Taiwan Life Insurance Co (台灣人壽保險) NT$6 million (US$199,382) for irregularities related to a real-estate transaction that was made as the insurer was acquired by CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控) in 2015. CTBC Financial was found to have overpaid for commercial property that was owned by Gobo Group (國寶集團), a major shareholder in the insurer. The property was put to auction in 2014 with a starting bid of NT$1.4 billion and did not find a buyer. It was later sold to CTBC Financial for NT$1.57 billion.
PHARMACEUTICALS
ASLAN defends IPO
ASLAN Pharmaceuticals (亞獅康), a biotech firm focused on the development of immunotherapies and targeted agents for Asia-prevalent tumor types, yesterday responded to allegations that the interests of retail investors who had participated in its initial public offering (IPO) on the Taipei Exchange had been harmed as its share price dropped from its NT$58 debut to NT$52.2. The company said that all of its investors have agreed to lockup periods of one to two years for board members and management, and six months for other investors of varying stakes. They did not sell ASLAN shares during its volatile market debut on Thursday last week, and it is not seeking to capital gains as critics claim, the company said.
TECHNOLOGY
HTC sales hit 14-month low
HTC Corp (宏達電) yesterday reported that its sales last month had dipped 4 percent sequentially and 33 percent annually to NT$4.53 billion, reaching the lowest in the past 14 months. Sales during the first five months of this year fell 13 percent annually to NT$23.78 billion. The company attributed its sales performance to an ongoing product cycle adjustment, as it had launched its latest HTC U11 flagship handset last month. The company would also cut its number of new handset models this year from six to five in a bid to remain in the black.
CHIPMAKERS
MediaTek reports growth
MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the nation’s biggest handset chip designer, yesterday reported NT$18.44 billion in revenue for last month, representing 3.89 percent growth from April’s NT$17.75 billion. The sequential growth was supported by recovering demand from Chinese handset makers. On an annual basis, revenue plunged 25.16 percent from NT$24.64 billion made in May last year. The company forecast in April that revenue would be flat or grow 8 percent quarter-over-quarter to between NT$56.1 billion and NT$60.6 billion. Shipments of chips used in smartphones and tablets are to increase by less than 5 percent quarterly to between 110 million and 120 million units this quarter, MediaTek said.
CHIPMAKERS
Nanya reduction hits revenue
DRAM chipmaker Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday said revenue fell 4.68 percent last month to NT$4.12 billion from NT$4.32 billion in April due to a 4 percent reduction in shipments. The Taoyuan-based chipmaker attributed the shipment decline to its ongoing technological migration to 20 nanometer (nm) technology from 30nm technology. Compared with the same period last year, revenue soared 42.06 percent from NT$2.9 billion. As chip prices are stabilizing, Nanya Technology expects revenue to return to growth this month on a monthly basis. The company expects shipments to grow about 1 percent this quarter from last quarter.
Hong Kong authorities ramped up sales of the local dollar as the greenback’s slide threatened the foreign-exchange peg. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) sold a record HK$60.5 billion (US$7.8 billion) of the city’s currency, according to an alert sent on its Bloomberg page yesterday in Asia, after it tested the upper end of its trading band. That added to the HK$56.1 billion of sales versus the greenback since Friday. The rapid intervention signals efforts from the city’s authorities to limit the local currency’s moves within its HK$7.75 to HK$7.85 per US dollar trading band. Heavy sales of the local dollar by
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
PRESSURE EXPECTED: The appreciation of the NT dollar reflected expectations that Washington would press Taiwan to boost its currency against the US dollar, dealers said Taiwan’s export-oriented semiconductor and auto part manufacturers are expecting their margins to be affected by large foreign exchange losses as the New Taiwan dollar continued to appreciate sharply against the US dollar yesterday. Among major semiconductor manufacturers, ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光), the world’s largest integrated circuit (IC) packaging and testing services provider, said that whenever the NT dollar rises NT$1 against the greenback, its gross margin is cut by about 1.5 percent. The NT dollar traded as strong as NT$29.59 per US dollar before trimming gains to close NT$0.919, or 2.96 percent, higher at NT$30.145 yesterday in Taipei trading
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