PChomestore Inc (商店街) shareholders yesterday approved the company’s privatization plan as expected, with many remaining optimistic about tapping into greener fundraising pastures abroad.
The Taiwanese consumer-to-consumer (C2C) e-commerce platform has racked up massive losses to fund free shipping subsidies during a war of attrition with rival Shopee Taiwan Co (樂購蝦皮) in the past year.
Following its departure from the Taipei Exchange (TPEX), the company is now looking to stage an initial public offering in Japan, the US or Hong Kong, PChomestore general manager Su Yun (蘇芸) said.
PChomestore shares were unlisted from the TPEX at the end of trading on Friday last week.
“The company is seeking to raise NT$4.5 billion [US$148.01 million] and will begin the application process next quarter,” Su said.
PChomestore could be relisted abroad as soon as the second half of next year, Su said.
PChomestore has been hamstrung by its smaller war chest, Su said, adding that its capitalization on the TPEX was only about NT$1.5 billion.
By contrast, Japan’s Mercari Inc, a C2C platform primarily focused on selling used goods, has achieved a capitalization exceeding NT$200 billion since its debut on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Tuesday, Su said.
Taiwan’s capital markets are unable to reflect PChomestore’s value, with the company’s monthly sales averaging about NT$4 billion compared with Mercari’s NT$10 billion, Su said.
The company’s home market remains important to PChomestore and its parent company, PChome Online Inc (網路家庭) would remain the company’s biggest shareholder, Su said.
Looking ahead, the C2C platform would look to expand abroad in markets such as Thailand, as well as bringing sellers from Japan, the US and Europe to Taiwanese consumers to distinguish itself from Shopee Taiwan, which lists mostly Chinese products, a policy that has resulted in varying levels of customer satisfaction, Su said.
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
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
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],”