LEASING SERVICES
Chailease to hire 500 people
Chailease Holding Co (中租控股), the nation’s No. 1 leasing services provider, plans to hire 500 additional employees this year as it seeks to deepen its presence in Taiwan and abroad. The company is to boost operations in all markets in which it already has stakes, as it believes there is room for growth, an official said. Sales representatives dominated recruitment efforts in the past, but this year, information and technology professionals would take center stage, the official said. Like peers, the company is exploring business opportunities linked to financial technology, the official said. In addition, the company aims to expand its operations in Southeast Asia, most likely in Indonesia, the official said.
FOOTWEAR
Fulgent Sun income falls
Fulgent Sun Group (鈺齊國際), an outdoor footwear supplier to global brands such as Timberland, yesterday released its unaudited consolidated results for last year, showing that net income was NT$737.29 million (S$23.9 million), with earnings per share (EPS) of NT$5.1. That compared with net income of NT$803.11 million and EPS of NT$5.51 in 2017. Revenue decreased to NT$10.07 billion, from NT$10.39 billion a year earlier, the company said. Gross margin was 18 percent, down from 19.8 percent the previous year, while operating margin dropped from 10.9 percent to 8.3 percent, it said.
BANKING
King’s Town to cut capital
King’s Town Bank (京城銀行), a medium-sized bank based in Tainan, yesterday said its board of directors approved a proposal to reduce capital by NT$100 million due to the cancelation of treasury shares. The bank said in a regulatory filing that its share capital would fall to NT$11.41 billion after the cancelation of 10 million shares. The bank reported losses of NT$1.03 billion last month due to higher provisioning for its NT$1.64 billion loan to debt-ridden Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (中華映管), causing its full-year profit to drop 51.06 percent to NT$2.88 billion, with earnings per share of NT$2.51.
ELECTRONICS
Flexium unveils bond price
Flexium Interconnect Inc (台郡), a Kaohsiung-based supplier of flexible printed circuit boards for Apple Inc products, has set a conversion price of NT$83.95 for its latest three-year overseas convertible bond issuance and plans to start issuing the US$100 million, zero-interest bonds tomorrow, according to the company’s latest regulatory filing. Shares of Flexium yesterday fell 1.2 percent to NT$73.9 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange. KGI Securities Ltd (凱基證券), the sole manager of the convertible bond sales, said the issue had been oversubscribed to more than four times the original size, reflecting strong interest from international institutional investors.
CURRENCY
Yuan deposits slide
Yuan deposits held by local banks fell 1.11 percent to 298.441 billion yuan (US$43.9 billion) at the end of last month, from 301.792 billion yuan the previous month, central bank data showed. That marked the third straight month of decline, with deposits the lowest in four years as the Chinese currency continues to weaken against the greenback amid US-China trade tensions. Yuan deposits at domestic banking units fell 1.16 percent to 264.473 billion yuan last month, while those at offshore units fell 0.88 percent to 33.968 billion yuan, the central bank 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
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
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