BEVERAGES
Starbucks deal hits shares
Shares in food conglomerate Uni-President Enterprises Corp (統一企業) yesterday dropped 3.47 percent and those of 7-Eleven convenience store chain operator President Chain Store Corp (統一超商) lost 7.80 percent after the two companies agreed to sell their stakes in Starbucks Shanghai to Seattle-based Starbucks Corp, a move that raised investors’ concerns over the companies’ earnings growth. Daiwa-Cathay Capital Markets Co (大和國泰證券) said in a client note on Thursday that it views the deal as negative long-term for both companies given that Shanghai Starbucks has been a profitable equity investment for them.
BANKING
Loans to SMEs increase
Loans to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) rose NT$43.1 billion month-on-month to NT$5.869 trillion as of the end of last month, Banking Bureau data released on Thursday showed. The amount accounted for 59.68 percent of total corporate loans and 62.35 percent of total loans extended to the private sector, up 0.56 percentage points and 0.55 percentage points from the previous month respectively, the bureau said in a statement on its Web site. The underlying bad loan ratio fell 0.01 percentage points to 0.45 percent last month, the bureau said.
TELECOMS
Far EasTone nears 4G target
Far EasTone Telecommunications Co Ltd (遠傳電信), the nation’s third-largest telecom, yesterday said its number of 4G subscribers as of the end of last month was 5.46 million, 75 percent of its total number of mobile service subscribers. The company earlier this year said that it was aiming to boost the number of 4G subscribers to 5.5 million by the end of this year. Far EasTone posted NT$21.94 billion in revenue in the second quarter, with net income of NT$2.92 billion, or earnings per share of NT$0.9.
CHIPMAKERS
NOR flash prices to rise
Memorychip maker Winbond Electronics Corp (華邦電子) yesterday said that short supply of NOR flash memory chips would last through the end of this year, citing strong demand. Winbond, which has a 30 percent share of the world’s NOR flash market, said chip prices would continue to rise amid a boom and outlook for this quarter is likely to be stronger than last quarter, when the company posted a net profit of NT$990 million, or earnings per share of NT$0.28, its highest in nine quarters. Second-quarter revenue grew 9 percent quarter-on-quarter to NT$11.41 billion, with gross margin increasing to 32.55 percent, Winbond said. In the first half of the year, the company posted a net profit of NT$1.68 billion, up 18 percent year-on-year, or earnings per share of NT$0.47.
ELECTRONICS
Sharp back in the black
Sharp Corp yesterday said it had swung back into a profit in the second quarter thanks to Hon Hai Precision Industry Co’s (鴻海精密) cost-cutting efforts, after the Taiwanese firm acquired a 66 percent stake in the Japanese electronics maker in August last year for US$3.7 billion. The recovery was mainly due to brisk sales and structural reforms, including cost-cutting, Sharp said. The firm booked a net profit of ¥14.5 billion (US$131 million) in the second quarter, reversing ¥27.5 billion net loss the previous year, while sales jumped 19.6 percent to ¥506.4 billion. The Osaka-based company left its full-year forecast unchanged, projecting ¥59 billion in net profit for the current fiscal year to March next year.
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
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
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
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six