PASSIVE COMPONENTS
Yageo revenue surges 80%
Yageo Corp (國巨), the world’s biggest passive component supplier, yesterday said its consolidated revenue surged 80 percent year-on-year to NT$4.27 billion (US$146.2 million) last month, thanks to increasing demand in all segments. That represented month-on-month growth of 32.8 percent from NT$3.22 billion in February. The company also benefited from high-end product expansion, Yageo said in a statement. In the first quarter, revenue surged 62 percent year-on-year to NT$11.03 billion. Yageo expects profits to grow for the rest of the year, backed by further product mix optimization and increasing demand for high-end products.
FLAT PANELS
Innolux revenue falls 28%
Innolux Corp (群創), the flat-panel manufacturing arm of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), yesterday posted revenue of NT$22.58 billion for last year, a year-on-year decline of 28 percent from NT$31.35 billion due to falling panel prices. On a monthly basis, revenue grew 24.9 percent from NT$18.08 billion. In the first quarter, revenue slid 22.4 percent to NT$66.8 billion from NT$86.03 billion during the same period the previous year. Compared with the fourth quarter of last year, revenue declined 15.6 percent. Shipments of large flat panels shrank 8.1 percent quarter-on-quarter to 28.07 million units last quarter, while small and medium panel shipments contracted 7 percent to 68.57 million units.
FINANCIAL SERVICES
CDFHC income soars 77%
China Development Financial Holding Corp (CDFHC, 中華開發金控) yesterday reported that net income in the first quarter rose 77 percent year-on-year to NT$3.19 billion as the company profited from its direct investments and the contribution of China Life Insurance Co (中國人壽), in which it has a 34.96 percent stake. Earnings per share were NT$0.22. However, the company reported that its lending arm, KGI Bank (凱基銀行), incurred a loss of NT$283 million due to a spike in global market volatility. Separately, E.Sun Financial Holding Co (玉山金控) reported that its net income in the first quarter rose 25.2 percent year-on-year to NT$4.67 billion on the back of steady loan growth and rising fee income. Earnings per share were NT$0.46.
ELECTRONICS
Acer hit by FX losses
Acer Inc (宏碁) yesterday said that its consolidated revenue inched up 1.42 percent year-on-year last month to NT$22.64 billion, bringing the total revenue for the first quarter to NT$54.77 billion. Last quarter’s revenue slid 2.25 percent year-on-year from NT$56.03 billion due to an unfavorable foreign exchange rate, the firm said. Excluding the foreign exchange factor, revenue would have grown 3.52 percent, Acer said in a statement. Acer attributed the revenue growth primarily to robust demand for its gaming PCs, which saw revenue surge 60 percent year-on-year.
INTERNET
China bans four news apps
Chinese state media reported that four popular news apps have been temporarily removed from Google Play following an order from regulators. The Web site of the Beijing Daily said Toutiao (今日頭條), Phoenix News (鳳凰新媒體), NetEase News (網易新聞) and Tiantian Kuaibao (天天快報) had been suspended yesterday. It said Toutiao would be suspended for three weeks and resume services on April 30, while Phoenix News would be taken down for two weeks, NetEase News for one week and Tiantian for three days.
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts