Jkos Network Co Ltd (街口網) and two other investors on Thursday spent NT$370.18 million (US$12.04 million) buying 80 percent of Paradigm Asset Management Co Ltd (國票華頓證券投資信託股份有限公司), in a bid to expand its business into investment trust services and consulting.
Jkos Network, the parent firm of Jkopay Co Ltd (街口電子支付), would hold a 25 percent of Paradigm Asset’s shares, a cap set by the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), Jkopay communications officer Vivien Chan (詹宥虹) told the Taipei Times yesterday.
Chan declined to say how much Jkos paid for the trade.
However, he said that holding a 25 percent stake would give Jkos a degree of control.
The remaining 55 percent stake was purchased by a Kaohsiung-based investment company and an investor surnamed Lee (李), Chan said.
According to Waterland Financial Holdings Co (國票金控) data, the three investors bought a total of 32.8 million shares at a price of NT$11.286 per share.
Local media reported that Jkos Network might aim to become something resembling Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s (阿里巴巴) Yu’eBao (餘額寶), the largest fund manager in China, by cooperating with Paradigm and marketing new products to its users.
Jkos Network plans to expand its business to include investment trusts and consulting, relying on its solid user base, Chan said, but added that “it would not be correct if you say we aim to be another Yu’eBao.”
The FSC in April last year eased the rules to allow electronic payment firms to invest their money in New Taiwan dollar-denominated money market funds, but no company has yet applied to run such a fund, the commission said on Tuesday.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure