An investment firm led by a Taiwanese property tycoon has agreed to buy Eastern Broadcasting Co (東森電視), one of the leading cable TV stations in Taiwan.
In a statement released on Thursday, Eastern Media International Corp (東森國際), which holds a 21.32 percent stake in the cable TV station, said it and other shareholders would sell their stake in Eastern Broadcasting for about NT$17 billion (US$563 million) to Mao Te International Investment Co (茂德國際投資), owned by property developer Chang Kao-shiang (張高祥).
US-based private equity fund Carlyle Group owns a 62 percent stake in Eastern Broadcasting, while minority shareholders own the remaining 16.68 percent.
Data compiled by the Department of Commerce shows that Chang established the investment firm in New Taipei City in August and that it has mainly invested in the property market and traded in building materials in Taiwan.
Chang is a low-profile property developer, but he owns assets worth about NT$100 billion, media reports said.
In recent years, Chang has also benefited from the sale of large-scale residential property projects in New Taipei City’s Sinjhung (新莊) and Banciao (板橋) districts, the reports said.
Eastern Media chairman Liao Shang-wen (廖尚文) said the sale is expected to be completed by the end of this month.
Liao said the deal, which is expected to rake in about NT$3.06 billion in profit or earnings per share of about NT$4.4, would help the company make up its net losses of NT$129 million, or NT$0.19 per share, during the first half of the year.
The company is expected to report an additional NT$10 million in losses for the third quarter of the year.
Proceeds from the sale are expected to boost Eastern Media’s book value per share to more than NT$10 from NT$6.51 as of the end of June, and the company intends to issue dividends to shareholders for this year’s earnings, Liao said.
Eastern Media shares gained 10 percent to close at NT$10.1 in Taipei trading yesterday.
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
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],”