Probiotics supplier Glac Biotech Co Ltd (豐華) plans to spend nearly NT$376 million (US$12.83 million) to expand the capacity of its Chiayi plant, aiming to create economies of scale, the company said on Thursday.
Glac also announced that its board had approved the distribution of a cash dividend for the first time in the company’s history.
The company is to pay NT$3 per common share.
Glac, a major subsidiary of drugmaker Center Laboratories Inc (晟德), makes and distributes products in Taiwan and China.
It completed the acquisition of Glory Biotech Co Ltd (得榮生技) on Dec. 29 last year to enhance its product lineup in functional foods.
The capital spending announcement is seen as part of Glac’s latest attempt to cement its position in the Taiwanese and Chinese probiotics market through capacity expansion.
The company plans to spend the funds on new equipment to transform the existing facility into a world-class probiotics plant, Glac said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
The company did not disclose a detailed plan for the expansion, but said its board has fully authorized its chairman to carry out the project.
Besides the Chiayi plant, the company also operates a plant in Tainan, while in China, the firm has two plants in Anhui Province and one in Jiangsu Province, according to Glac’s Web site.
The company’s revenue last month jumped 68.99 percent year-on-year from NT$64.37 million to NT$38.09 billion, with sales to Chinese customers contributing more than 70 percent, company data showed.
The company posted sales of NT$778.17 million for the whole of last year, representing a 23.92 percent increase from NT$627.96 million the previous year.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last