BANKING
CHB investigates kickbacks
State-run Chang Hwa Commercial Bank (CHB, 彰化銀行) has completed the first phase of an investigation into a kickback scandal involving two executives at its Dongguang branch in China’s Guangdong Province, the National Treasury Administration said on Thursday. The bank has removed branch manager Chang Chiung-wen (張瓊文) and assistant manager Yu Chih-jen (游志仁) from their positions, the administration said, adding that CHB has turned the case over to prosecutors and started a second-phase investigation into whether other employees should be held accountable. Both Chang and Yu took a total of 50,000 yuan (US$7,956) in kickbacks from clients applying for credit, the bank said on Tuesday last week.
TECHNOLOGY
Bitmain sets up in Hsinchu
Beijing-based Bitmain Technologies Ltd (比特大陸), the world’s largest bitcoin miner, has set up an office in Hsinchu County, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported yesterday, citing unnamed sources from the local IC sector. Bitmain has attempted to recruit application-specific IC and artificial intelligence talents from tier-one IC design houses, such as MediaTek Inc (聯發科), MStar Semiconductor Inc (晨星半導體) and Global Unichip Corp (創意電子), by offering them high salaries, the report said.
ELECTRONICS
Ichia revenue grows
Handset keypad maker Ichia Technologies Inc (毅嘉科技) on Thursday posted revenue of NT$602.96 million (US$20.6 million) for last month, up 48.12 percent from NT$407.09 million a year earlier. Revenue increased slightly by 0.73 percent from the prior month’s NT$598.62 million, a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange showed. Last month’s revenue included about NT$468 million in sales of flexible printed circuit integrated components and about NT$142 million from mechanical integrated components, the company said. Recent price increases in raw materials have had little impact on the company’s operation, Ichia said.
STOCK EXCHANGE
JHL plans to delist
JHL Biotech Inc (喜康生技) on Thursday said it has received shareholders’ approval to terminate trading of its shares on the Taipei Exchange’s Emerging Stock Board. On Dec. 8 last year, JHL announced it was considering delisting from the smaller board, as the company plans to list on other stock exchanges in consideration of business expansion. The company on Thursday said that it would soon request permission from the Taipei Exchange to buy back its shares from investors at no less than NT$62.48 per share.
ELECTRONICS
Leatec plans price hike
Given persistent price hikes in upstream materials, Leatec Fine Ceramics Co Ltd (九豪精密陶瓷), which makes chip resistor substrates, has started negotiating prices with major clients, the Chinese-language Commercial Times reported on Thursday, citing industry sources. Leatec Fine Ceramics plans to increase its prices for all ceramic substrates by between 5 percent and 15 percent, the report said, adding that new prices could be applied on all new orders. The company said its substrate capacity would remain fully loaded in the first quarter and hopes its utilization rate remains high during the Lunar New Year holiday, as it is asking employees at its plants in Taoyuan’s Pingjhen District (平鎮) and in Kunshan in China’s Jiangsu Province to work overtime, the newspaper reported.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure