BANKING
Mega Bank signs loan deal
State-run Mega International Commercial Bank (兆豐銀行) yesterday said it has inked a syndicated loan contract with General Interface Solution (GIS) Holding Ltd (業成控股) so the borrower can expand. Seven other lenders, including DBS Bank, Chang Hwa Commercial Bank (彰化銀行) and Bank of Taiwan (台灣銀行), also took part in the US$300 million syndicated loan over three years, Mega Bank said in a statement. GIS designs, manufactures and sells touch and LCD display modules in Asia, the US and Europe. Its products are used in wearable devices and smartphones.
STEELMAKERS
CSC income surges 42%
China Steel Corp (CSC, 中鋼), the nation’s only integrated steelmaker, yesterday said its pretax income last month jumped 42 percent to NT$2.33 billion (US$79.7 million) from NT$1.63 billion the previous year, supported by rising steel prices. Revenue rose 30 percent year-on-year to NT$32.82 billion from NT$25.16 billion, a company statement said. Operating income over the period increased 17 percent year-on-year to NT$2.48 billion from NT$2.12 billion, it said. The company, which sold 971,312 tonnes of steel products last month, is scheduled to announce its latest price adjustments for deliveries in the second quarter today. CSC shares yesterday fell 1.22 percent to close at NT$24.2 in Taipei trading before the earnings announcement.
TOURISM
Life Travel to issue shares
Life Travel & Tourist Service Co Ltd (五福旅遊), a travel consultancy firm, yesterday said its board has approved a plan to raise capital of between NT$86.3 million and NT$103.56 million through the issuance of nearly 3.45 million new shares in a bid to replenish its operating capital. The company plans to price the new shares at between NT$25 and NT$30, according to a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The company’s shares yesterday edged up 0.43 percent to close at NT$39.5 on the emerging market.
INTERNET
Tissue paper sales rocket
PChome Online Inc (網路家庭) yesterday said it has sold 50,000 cartons of tissue paper in the past three days ahead of a price increase, with sales surging 22-fold compared with the same period last month. The firm sold more than 30,000 cartons of tissue paper on Saturday last week, PChome, the nation’s largest online shopping portal, said in a statement. About 95 percent of the tissue paper listed on PChome’s Web site has sold out, the company said, adding that it started restocking the products yesterday. The average daily sales of tissue paper were about 1,000 cartons before the news of the price increase broke last week, PChome said.
TEXTILES
Roo Hsing to buy stake
Jeans manufacturer Roo Hsing Co Ltd (如興) yesterday said it is to spend up to US$50 million to indirectly acquire a 53.41 percent stake in Chuwa Wool Industry Co Ltd (中和羊毛), in a strategy to expand the company’s presence in the textile industry. The acquisition is to be made through Roo Hsing’s planned investment in Keen Power Investment Ltd (Samoa) and Sparkling Asia Ltd (Belize), the company said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The transaction is expected to be completed this quarter, the Central News Agency quoted the company as saying.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to