STOCK EXCHANGES
TPEX to hold HK conference
The Taipei Exchange (TPEX) yesterday said it is organizing a large overseas investors’ conference to attract more foreign institutional investors. Joining forces with Capital Securities Corp (群益金鼎證券), one of the nation’s largest securities houses, TPEX is to hold a two-day investor conference in Hong Kong on Thursday and Friday next week covering 17 companies listed on the local market, TPEX said. Representatives from a wide range of industries are to hold about 270 separate meetings with interested foreign institutional investors at the event, the exchange said. Foreign institutional investors that attend the meetings run investment funds worth about US$580 billion. After the conference in Hong Kong, the TPEX plans to hold similar events in Japan and Malaysia. Foreign institutional investors accounted for 22.6 percent of the market’s total value last year.
FASTENERS
QST to acquire Chinese unit
QST International Corp (恒耀), which produces and distributes fasteners, yesterday said it would spend US$64 million to acquire its Chinese subsidiary Boltun BVI Corp to simplify its management structure. QST has a 55 percent stake in the Chinese unit, which last year generated revenue of 770 million yuan (US$122.7 million) and a net profit of 125.16 million yuan, company data showed. The acquisition is to be complete in the third quarter of this year, QST said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The fastener maker said in a separate filing that it is planning to take out a syndicated loan of between NT$2 billion and NT$3 billion (US$68.6 million and US$102.9 million).
TELECOMS
FET unveils new rate plans
Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (FET, 遠傳電信) yesterday unveiled new rate plans for subscribers, who can get free membership at Fitness Factory (健身工廠) or free training programs. FET hopes the new offering would help boost average revenue per user. FET subscribers can choose to sign a service contract with a minimum monthly fee of NT$599, NT$999 or NT$1,399 for 30 months. Most telecoms used to subsidize the price of handsets to retain users, but they have shifted their subsidies to purchases of items beyond mobile phones. Hair dryers, Dyson vacuum cleaners and Gogoro electric scooters are all on FET’s subsidy list.
HOSPITALITY
Shining opens Nanjing hotel
Shining Group (鄉林集團), the parent group of The Lalu (涵碧樓), a luxury hotel brand, yesterday opened a new property in Nanjing, China, as it seeks to boost its presence in the Chinese market and on the world stage. The Lalu Nanjing is the brand’s third outlet after the Lalu Sun Moon Lake in Nantou County and a property in China’s Qingdao. Shining Group chairman Lai Cheng-yi (賴正鎰) said the group is separating its property development from its hospitality business as the latter grows in scale and earnings contribution. The hospitality arm next plans to open an outlet in Chengdu and is mulling a Chinese initial public offering.
STEELMAKERS
Yieh Phui proposes dividend
Yieh Phui Enterprise Co (燁輝) yesterday said its management team has proposed distributing a cash dividend of NT$0.2 based on last year’s net profit of NT$1.37 billion, or earnings per share of NT$0.75. The firm plans to hold its annual shareholders’ meeting on June 21 to discuss the dividend proposal. Yieh Phui shares yesterday edged up 0.47 percent to close at NT$10.8 in Taipei trading.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by