ENTERTAINMENT
VHQ buys into TV dramas
Singapore-based VHQ Media Holdings Ltd (威馳克媒體) yesterday said it has purchased a 70 percent stake in Beijing Jupiter Cultural Media Inc (木星時代文化傳媒), a deal that is likely contribute to its revenue and earnings this quarter. VHQ, which trades on the Taipei Exchange, said it expects that the extension into TV dramas through the 173.6 million yuan (US$25.1 million) deal would help it leverage its strengths in movie production, TV commercial visual design, special effects, post-production and 3D animation. VHQ said it remains optimistic for this year, as orderbook visibility stretches until next year.
SEMICONDUCTORS
PDC shares up on earnings
Prosperity Dielectrics Co Ltd (PDC, 信昌電子陶瓷) shares yesterday rose 9.91 percent after it reported that net profit increased 322 percent annually in August. The Taoyuan-based company, which supplies chip capacitors, chip resistors, ceramic dielectric powder, semiconductor ceramics and silver paste, said that net profit reached NT$190 million (US$6.15 million) in August, with earnings per share (EPS) of NT$1.11, compared with NT$0.26 in the same month last year. Cumulative net profit totaled NT$372 million for July and August, up 389 percent year-on-year, with EPS of NT$2.16, PDC said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
ELECTRONICS
Parade approves buyback
Parade Technologies Ltd (譜瑞), which specializes in designing and selling high-speed signal transmission interfaces and display chips, yesterday said its board of directors has approved a share buyback scheme and would transfer the repurchased shares to its employees. The company plans to repurchase 500,000 shares on the open market from yesterday to Dec. 11 at NT$282.5 to NT$677 per share, the company said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The repurchased shares would account for 0.63 percent of its total issuance, Parade said. The company’s shares yesterday closed up 8.92 percent at NT$403 in Taipei trading. They have declined 31.58 percent this year. The firm reported sales of NT$7.25 billion in first nine months, down 5.8 percent year-on-year.
ELECTRONICS
Ichia Q3 earnings strong
Handset keypad maker Ichia Technologies Inc (毅嘉科技) on Thursday released unaudited operating results for last quarter showing pretax profit of NT$93 million, the highest for the period in four years. Shipments, product prices, yield rates and operating efficiency improved last quarter from the second quarter, the company said. From January through last month, cumulative pretax profit totaled NT$59 million, the company said in a statement. In the first nine months, consolidated revenue grew 1.68 percent annually to NT$5.34 billion, with gross margin of 6 percent and operating losses of NT$7 million, Ichia said.
ENERGY
Tatung OKs solar plant
Home appliance supplier Tatung Co (大同) on Thursday said its board of directors voted to invest in a 133 megawatt (MW) solar power plant in Tainan’s Cigu District (七股), in addition to a 120MW solar plant in the area that the board approved earlier. Overall, Tatung said it plans to install 253MW of solar capacity in Tainan, as it strives to enhance its market share in solar power plants and assure long-term revenue and profit stability, the company said in a statement. Tatung has been aggressively inviting large-scale financial investors to participate in the investment, it added.
Contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain the third-largest IC supplier this year, unchanged from last year, IC Insights said yesterday. IC designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) is expected to become the 11th-largest, up from 16th last year, the semiconductor market research firm said. TSMC is expected to post US$45.42 billion in sales, up 31 percent from last year, IC Insights said in a report released on its Web site. TSMC’s sales growth is largely due to a surge in orders from Apple Inc and HiSilicon Technologies Co (海思半導體) — two of its major clients — which
SETTING AN EXAMPLE: The commission suspended the bank’s two top executives as ‘a warning to all banks,’ while the fine is the biggest to be given to a bank in a single case The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday fined E.Sun Commercial Bank (玉山銀行) NT$20 million (US$693,698) over a theft scandal and punished the bank’s two top executives. A customer relationship manager surnamed Pan (潘) at the bank’s branch in Kaohsiung’s Fengshan District (鳳山) stole NT$140 million from 41 clients over the past seven years, the commission said. Pan secretly transferred the stolen money to accounts belonging to her and her family members by using clients’ debit cards, passwords or documents that were stamped using the clients’ personal stamps between July 2013 and June this year, the commission said. The commission suspended Ben Chen (陳炳良), the
HARD ASK: At a meeting held by the MOEA to talk about the RCEP trade deal, trade associations said that they expect the government to push for more free-trade deals Business representatives yesterday urged the government to slow the appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar, saying that some Taiwanese industries have been undercut by rivals due to unfavorable foreign exchange rates. The government should also assist local industries to expand their domestic market, and push for more bilateral trade deals so that Taiwanese companies can enjoy zero or preferential tariffs on exports, following the nation’s exclusion from the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) which was signed by 15 Asia-Pacific nations on Nov. 15, they said at a meeting with the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA). Some participants said that the NT dollar’s
BREATH OF LIFE: The firm said the under-utilized plant should start mass production in the first quarter, timed to coincide with Intel Corp’s release of its Ice Lake server chip Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) plans to assemble key components for Google servers at its plant in Wisconsin, people familiar with the matter said, finally breathing life into a factory that US President Donald Trump hailed as crucial to bringing manufacturing back to the US. The company has decided to locate production for this new contract at the existing complex rather than make the components at home or in China, the people said, asking not to be identified. The under-utilized plant should start mass production in the first quarter, timed with the release of Intel Corp’s Ice Lake server chips,
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