ENERGY
Solar merger approved
The Fair Trade Commission yesterday approved Neo Solar Energy Corp’s (新日光) merger with local solar cell makers Gintech Energy Corp (昱晶) and Solartech Energy Corp (昇陽光電), saying the deal would not harm market competition. The three-in-one merger, which earlier received approval from competition watchdogs in China and Germany, would help Neo Solar slightly increase its market share without hindering already-intensive competition, the commission said. There is also no major concern about potential price fixing, as solar prices are largely regulated worldwide, it said. About 90 percent of solar cells made by local firms are exported abroad, it added.
ENTERTAINMENT
OMG probed over patents
Online game maker MacroWell OMG Digital Entertainment Co (OMG, 歐買尬) yesterday confirmed that investigators searched the company’s offices earlier in the day over patent infringement allegations. The company said it would fully cooperate and that it would not affect its business.
RESTAURANTS
Hi-Lai approves dividend
Hi-Lai Foods Co Ltd (漢來美食) yesterday said its board has approved a proposal to distribute a cash dividend of NT$6.6 per share and a stock dividend of 3 percent this year, after reporting earnings per share of NT$7.47 for last year, representing a payout ratio of 92.37 percent. First-quarter revenue rose 7.56 percent from a year earlier to NT$979 million (US$33.3 million), a record high.
ELECTRONICS
Elan to slash capitalization
Elan Microelectronics Corp (義隆電子), which supplies touchpad controller and fingerprint sensors, on Tuesday announced that its board has agreed to cut the company’s capitalization by 30 percent to adjust its capital structure and return NT$3 in cash per share to shareholders. With a proposed cash dividend of NT$2.58 per common share, the company plans to distribute a total of NT$5.58 per share, to be approved at an annual shareholders’ meeting on June 11. The capital reduction plan would see the company’s capitalization drop to NT$3.04 billion from NT$4.34 billion.
ELECTRONICS
Machvision sees momentum
Machvision Inc (牧德), a supplier of printed circuit board (PCB) inspection equipment, on Tuesday said it is optimistic about its performance this year, as growth momentum would gain support from new products related to semiconductor applications. Chairman Collin Wang (汪光夏) told a Taipei Exchange-organized conference that the firm’s sales mix by product in the first quarter included flexible PCB inspection equipment (39 percent), automated optical inspection equipment for rigid PCBs (26 percent) and integrated circuit inspection equipment (17 percent). Machvision’s first-quarter sales grew 144.6 percent year-on-year and 8.2 percent quarter-on-quarter to NT$565 million.
BANKING
Yuan deposits slump 0.06%
Yuan deposits held by domestic banks, including negotiable certificates of deposit, edged down 0.06 percent to 321.69 billion yuan (US$51.2 billion) at the end of last month, the central bank said on Tuesday. Yuan deposits held by banks’ domestic units totaled 291.63 billion yuan, a monthly decrease of 0.16 percent, the central bank said, adding that holdings by banks’ offshore units increased 0.92 percent to 30.06 billion yuan.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) forecast that its wafer shipments this quarter would grow up to 7 percent sequentially and the factory utilization rate would rise to 75 percent, indicating that customers did not alter their ordering behavior due to the US President Donald Trump’s capricious US tariff policies. However, the uncertainty about US tariffs has weighed on the chipmaker’s business visibility for the second half of this year, UMC chief financial officer Liu Chi-tung (劉啟東) said at an online earnings conference yesterday. “Although the escalating trade tensions and global tariff policies have increased uncertainty in the semiconductor industry, we have not
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