ELECTRONICS
Xiaomi partners with E-Life
China’s Xiaomi Corp (小米) yesterday announced a strategic partnership with E-Life Mall Corp (全國電子) to broaden the reach of Xiaomi’s home and kitchen products through the Taiwanese electronics retailer’s stores. “E-Life Mall is a leading consumer electronics retailer in Taiwan. We look forward to introducing more of Xiaomi’s products to consumers in Taiwan via the collaboration with E-Life Mall,” Xiaomi Taiwan general manager Henman Lee (李佳峰) said in a news release. A wide range of Xiaomi’s products, such as rice cookers, robot vacuums, “smart” table lamps and “smart” weight scales would be available at E-Life Mall from Saturday, the statement said. E-Life Mall operates nearly 320 outlets across the nation, according to its Web site.
BANKING
O-Bank offers online first
O-Bank Co Ltd (王道商業銀行) yesterday launched an online service that would allow its customers to open foreign currency accounts without visiting a brick-and-mortar branch. Customers will have a choice of buying and selling 11 foreign currencies through an easy-to-use app, the bank said. The lender said it is the first among its peers to win authorization from the central bank for the service. Customers could enjoy minimum balances of as low as NT$100, O-Bank said.
STOCKS
TPEX plans new products
The Taipei Exchange (TPEX) yesterday announced plans to list new products, including exchange-traded funds and Islamic bonds, to support the government’s New Southbound Policy and attract Muslim investors in the region. The exchange also said that its average daily turnover last year rose 50.9 percent annually to NT$31.23 billion (US$1.07 billion) — its highest in nearly 10 years. Average daily turnover for the stock warrants market also grew rapidly last year, rising 74 percent annually to NT$921 million, it said. TPEX yesterday edged up 0.65 percent to 153.15 points, market data showed.
SHIPPING
U-Ming inks Vale SA deal
U-Ming Marine Transport Corp (裕民航運) yesterday said that its Singapore-based subsidiary has inked a 25-year contract of affreightment with Vale International SA of Switzerland, a unit of Brazilian mining and logistics giant Vale SA. U-Ming said that the contract to transport iron ore from Brazil to China is anticipated to be worth more than US$500 million with a bunker adjustment clause. The company added that it has commissioned the building of two bulk carrier vessels to meet the required capacity of the contract. Shares in the company yesterday gained 2.38 percent to close at NT$38.65 in Taipei trading before the announcement, beating the broader market.
BANKING
Hua Nan seeks legal edge
Hua Nan Commercial Bank (華南銀行), the banking arm of Hua Nan Financial Holding Co (華南金控), yesterday held a three-day seminar in Taipei on legal compliance, as the lender seeks to strengthen corporate governance and avoid legal pitfalls at home and abroad. Compliance knowledge is crucial for the lender that has branches in the US, Europe, Australia and elsewhere in the world where financial regulators have stepped up efforts to prevent money laundering and other irregularities, Hua Nan Financial chairman Wu Tang-chieh (吳當傑) said. The bank required all its executives and board directors from domestic and overseas branches to attend the seminar to demonstrate its commitment to the issue.
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],”
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
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained