CHIP PACKAGERS
ASE shares fall 9.7%
ASE Industrial Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投資控股) shares yesterday plunged 9.7 percent to close at NT$80.3 on its debut on the main bourse. The holding company operates the nation’s two biggest chip packagers and testers — Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (日月光半導體) and Siliconware Precision Industries Co Ltd (矽品精密). The holding company said it plans to distribute a cash dividend of NT$2.5 per common share by allocating part of the company’s capital surplus. That represents a 3.11 percent yield compared with the stock’s closing price yesterday. In total, the company plans to pay NT$10.8 billion (US$364.8 million) in dividends. The company is scheduled to hold an annual shareholders’ meeting on June 21 to vote on the dividend distribution.
TELECOMS
Chunghwa, HTC ink deal
Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), the nation’s biggest telecom, yesterday said it has signed a memorandum of understanding with HTC Corp (宏達電) to collaborate extensively on developing 5G technology devices and marketing. The memorandum aims to better prepare the company for the launch of pre-commercial 5G services, the telecom said in a statement. The deep collaboration is aimed at getting a leading share of the 5G market. In related news, Chunghwa Telecom said it plans to exclusively offer the HTC U11 phone at NT$3,990 along with a 30-month unlimited access 4G service contract.
FOOTWEAR
Pou Chen unveils dividend
Footwear manufacturer Pou Chen Corp (寶成工業) yesterday said in a filing that its board has approved a plan to distribute a cash dividend of NT$2 per share, the highest in the company’s history. The proposed dividend reflects the company’s earnings per share of NT$4.38 last year and is a relatively high payout ratio of 45 percent. Pou Chen posted a net profit of NT$12.92 billion for the whole of last year, down 1 percent from NT$13.06 billion the previous year, mainly because of higher expenses as it expands and renovates its retail business. Revenue was NT$278.63 billion, a 1.4 percent annual increase from NT$274.9 billion in 2016, company data showed.
FINANCIAL SERVICES
NT$0.6 divdend approved
China Development Financial Holding Corp (開發金控) yesterday said its board has approved the distribution of a cash dividend of NT$0.6 per common share. That represents a 5.33 percent yield compared with the company’s closing price of NT$11.25 yesterday. The company plans to hold an annual shareholders’ meeting on June 22 to approve the cash dividend distribution. China Development last year made a net profit of NT$11.7 billion, up from NT$5.92 billion in 2016. Earnings per share jumped to NT$0.8 last year from NT$0.4.
STOCK MARKET
TAIEX closes above 10,600
The TAIEX yesterday closed up 0.99 percent, rising above 10,600 points, led by increases in Apple Inc concept shares, most notably Largan Precision Co (大立光). The TAIEX closed at 10,657.88 on turnover of NT$118.03 billion. Shares in smartphone camera lens supplier Largan gained 6.5 percent to close at NT$3,480, while shares in contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) rose 1.5 percent to close at NT$227. Shares in Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major assembler of Apple iPhones, rose 1.72 percent to close at NT$82.9.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the