Tightened listing requirements for a company whose net asset value per share (NAVPS) is lower than NT$3 are expected to take effect in the second quarter, Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) Chairman Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said yesterday.
NAVPS, calculated by dividing the net asset value by the number of issued shares, is an indicator of a firm’s financial position, as it shows how much a stakeholder owns in terms of the firm’s assets, the Taiwan Stock Exchange said.
In a bid to improve the quality of the local equity market, the commission approved the exchange’s proposal on Tuesday that any listed firm with a NAVPS lower than NT$3 should make improvements within three years or be delisted from the exchange, Koo told reporters at Legislative Yuan in Taipei.
Firms which accountants doubt can continue to operate without problems would also be subject to the new regulations, Koo said.
Currently, the regulations state that a listed firm whose NAVPS becomes negative would be delisted, but that does not effectively encourage a company to bolster its financial condition, Koo said.
Under the new delisting mechanism, poorly performing firms would be given three years to enhance their NAVPS or they would be delisted while their shares are suspended for six months, Koo said.
Due to their low prices, investors have long characterized these shares as “eggs and dumplings,” and the new rule would remove such nonviable securities from the local bourse, Koo said.
Firms with a low NAVPS usually also have a low share price, the exchange added.
“If a firm’s NAVPS drops lower than the standard NT$10, it is a sign that the firm is in a tough situation. If the NAVPS is lower than NT$3, it means that the firm is losing money and financially sick,” an exchange manager surnamed Lo (羅) told the Taipei Times by telephone.
Profitable companies often see their NAVPS reach tens of New Taiwan dollars, Lo said, pointing to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (台積電), which had a NAVPS of NT$64 last quarter.
There are 10 listed corporations whose NAVPS are lower than NT$3, including Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (中華映管), a struggling LCD panel maker that applied for a restructuring in December last year, Lo said.
The fastest way to increase NAVPS is to raise a firm’s capital, along with making more profit or decreasing debt, Lo said.
The exchange plans to implement the amended regulations in May and begin reviewing problematic firms in May next year, which would allow them time to improve their NAVPS in the following three years, Lo added.
So-called “zombie stocks” with an exceedingly low turnover of shares are not necessarily a cause for concern and should not be subject to the new delisting mechanism, Koo said.
These shares exist on many markets, including China and the US, and do not harm the market as long the company’s financial position remains sound, he added.
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
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day