FINANCE
Fubon income falls 83%
Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) yesterday reported a net income of NT$620 million (US$20.08 million) for last month, down 83 percent from a year earlier, as its flagship company suffered losses. Fubon Life Insurance Co (富邦人壽) posted a net loss of NT$1.05 billion, compared with a net income of NT$1.43 billion a year earlier, due to lower investment gains amid a global equity market rout and a stronger New Taiwan dollar vis a vis the US dollar. For the first 11 months of the year, Fubon Financial Holding saw its net income rise 5 percent year-on-year to NT$53.1 billion. Earnings per share were NT$5.04 over the period, it said.
COMPONENTS
Lite-On revenue drops 5%
Electronics component supplier Lite-On Technology Corp (光寶科技) yesterday reported consolidated revenue of NT$16.73 billion for last month, down 4.94 percent from a year ago. The figures do not include its mobile phone camera module business, which it sold earlier this year, the company said in a statement. For the first 11 months of this year, sales totaled NT$191.95 billion, down 2.85 percent from a year earlier, it said. A company sales breakdown for last month showed that its information technology business contributed 65 percent to total sales, while optoelectronics and storage accounted for 15 percent each.
AUTOMOTIVE
Hiroca sales rise 14%
Automotive components maker Hiroca Holdings Ltd (廣華控股) yesterday reported consolidated sales of NT$808 million for last month, up 13.89 percent month-on-month and 4.49 percent year-on-year. Cumulative sales in the first 11 months of the year increased 3.84 percent from a year earlier to NT$7.49 billion. Hiroca, which produces automotive interior trim parts, as well as plastic, fabric and leather decorations, said that rising shipments to major automakers, especially the three major Japanese brands, boosted its sales last month. Japanese automakers Toyota Motor Corp, Honda Motor Co and Nissan Motor Co accounted for more than 70 percent of the company’s revenue last month, with the remainder from European and US brands, it said.
TECHNOLOGY
Megvii seeks funding
Megvii (曠視科技), the Beijing-based owner of facial recognition technology company Face++, is in discussions with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) and other investors as it seeks to raise at least US$500 million in new funding, according to people familiar with the matter. The company, which already counts Alibaba as a backer, is talking with Chinese private equity investors and is considering a valuation between US$3.5 billion and US$4 billion, the people said. The financing, which the firm hopes to close this month, would give Megvii ammunition to compete with local rival SenseTime Group Ltd (商湯科技), the people said.
BANKING
FTSE adds Shanghai bank
Shanghai Commercial and Savings Bank Ltd (SCSB, 上海商業儲蓄銀行) has been added to the FTSE TWSE Taiwan 50 Index after a quarterly index review, the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) said. Since its debut on Oct. 19, the bank has become one of the favorites of local and foreign institutional investors, who have bought a net 95 million of its shares as of Friday. Meanwhile, the FTSE has removed passive components maker Walsin Technology Corp (華新科技) from the Taiwan 50 Index. The index adjustments are to take effect on Saturday next week, the TWSE said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
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
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