AUTO PARTS
QST suspends share trading
The Taipei Exchange on Saturday approved QST International Corp’s (恒耀) request to suspend share trading today ahead of an view important information disclosure. QST is a global top-10 automotive fastener supplier. The company’s capacity expansion in China and global mergers and acquisitions have allowed it to ride the electric vehicle and lightweight material development uptrends, ending last year with a net income of NT$938 million (US$32.1 million), up 34 percent year-on-year, with record-high earnings per share of NT$6.98.
BANKING
Offshore units’ assets drop
The 60 offshore banking units (OBUs) of financial institutions operating in Taiwan had assets totaling US$205.52 billion as of the end of February, down US$419 million (0.2 percent) from January, the central bank said on Saturday. The OBUs of 37 local banks held US$181.81 billion in assets, while foreign banks’ 23 OBUs held US$23.72 billion, the central bank said. At the end of February, the primary uses of all OBUs’ funds were discounts and loans, amounting to US$81.4 billion, or 39.6 percent of total assets, the statement said.
MEDIA
VHQ reports record earnings
Singapore-based post production house VHQ Media Holdings Ltd on Friday reported record-high earnings for last year and said it expects better growth momentum for the first half of next year. Consolidated revenue increased 25.78 percent year-on-year to NT$1.296 billion last year, VHQ said. Operating income grew 67.94 percent to NT$465 million and net income expanded 43.43 percent to NT$324 million, with earnings per share of NT$10.05.
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