INSURANCE
Chunghwa Post facing ban
The Financial Supervisory Commission yesterday imposed a six-month ban on selling life insurance products against 46 branches of Chunghwa Post Co (中華郵政) based in Keelung after the regulator uncovered a serious infraction by a an employee. The commission found that the postal employee misappropriated NT$700 million (US$23.93 million) in insurance premiums that had been paid by more than 300 customers holding 887 policies. The the ban is expected to take effect next week, the commission said.
ELECTRONICS
Synnex’s net profit surges
Electronics distributor Synnex Technology International Corp (聯強國際) yesterday said its net profit surged 25 percent to NT$6.11 billion last year, compared with NT$4.88 billion in 2016. That translated into earnings per share of NT$3.67, up from NT$2.92 the previous year, a company statement said. Revenue climbed to a record-high NT$364.2 billion last year, up 6 percent from NT$342.7 billion in the previous year. The strongest growth came from the IC components segment with an annual growth rate of 12 percent. The company’s board of directors yesterday approved a cash dividend of NT$2.2 per common share.
TELECOMS
Dividend disappoints
Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), the nation’s biggest telecom, yesterday said its board of directors has approved a cash dividend of NT$4.79 per common share, the lowest payout since 2014. That represented a payout ratio of 95.6 percent based on the company’s earnings per share of NT$5.01 last year. It also implied a dividend yield of 4.6 percent based on the stock’s closing price of NT$109 yesterday.
DEAL LIKELY DEAD: As takeovers of semiconductor firms become national security issues amid a global microchip shortage, deals are becoming more difficult GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓) failed to reach a breakthrough in a last-ditch bid to salvage its planned takeover of Siltronic AG, likely spelling the collapse of the US$5 billion deal. The Taiwanese technology company did not resolve the government’s concerns during a private meeting between GlobalWafers chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) and German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action State Secretary Udo Philipp, people familiar with the matter said. Siltronic shares tumbled as much as 4.7 percent on the news on Friday, extending the stock’s decline for the year to more than 20 percent. While the ministry continues to examine the deal,
BOOMING ORDERS: As orders move away from neighboring countries such as India, Pakistan’s economic bright spot has found new customers in South America and Africa Pakistan’s textile sector is bringing cheer to its flailing economy, with exports set to swell to a record after gaining an edge over South Asian rivals during the COVID-19 pandemic. Textile exports are poised to surge 40 percent from a year earlier to a record US$21 billion in the 12 months ending in June, said Abdul Razak Dawood, commerce adviser to Pakistan’s prime minister. Dawood said that the figure would expand to US$26 billion in the next fiscal year, surpassing the nation’s total exports last year, he said. The textiles industry — which supplies everything from denim jeans to towels for buyers
Samsung Electronics Co is stepping up spending on advanced chipmaking technology as it sees growing demand for its smartphones, displays and memory products. South Korea’s largest company reported 43.6 trillion won (US$36.17 billion) in semiconductor capital expenditure last year, eclipsing rivals as it acquired extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines to pursue an aggressive expansion of its most lucrative memory and system chipmaking. It expects a recovery in server and PC memory demand, and said foldables are already helping its sales growth, although declined to offer a forecast due to the high degree of uncertainty around supply chains and the COVID-19 pandemic. Samsung
The data transmission speed of 6G (sixth-generation wireless) networks is expected to be 10 to 100 times faster than 5G technology, MediaTek Inc (聯發科) said in a paper released on Jan. 18. 6G standardization is expected to begin in 2024 or 2025, with the first standard technology expected in 2027 or 2028, said MediaTek, one of the world’s leading chip design companies. “Our 6G vision is of an adaptive, integrated and super heterogeneous wireless communication system, delivering pervasive mobile connectivity in a truly ubiquitous manner,” the paper said. The sector is making breakthroughs in the research and development (R&D) of key 6G technologies,