RETAIL
Eslite approves dividends
Eslite Spectrum Corp (誠品生活) on Tuesday said its board has approved a plan to distribute cash dividends of NT$6.8 (US$0.22) per share, representing a payout ratio of 92.9 percent based on last year’s earnings per share (EPS) of NT$7.32. Last year, the company paid cash dividends of NT$7.56 per share against EPS of NT$8.91 in 2017. Revenue last year edged up 5.2 percent from the previous year to NT$4.5 billion, while net income fell 17.98 percent to NT$347 million. Shareholders are to vote on the dividend proposal at an annual general meeting on May 29, the company said.
ELECTRONICS
Cub Elecparts profits rise
Cub Elecparts Inc (為升), which makes electric switches and sensors for cars, on Tuesday reported net profit of NT$1.09 billion for last year, up from NT$1.01 billion a year earlier, but EPS declined from NT$10 to NT$9.48, as shares issued last year diluted its earnings. Gross margin also dropped by 4.85 percentage points to 48.4 percent, while revenue rose 14.3 percent to NT$4.02 billion, it said. The company’s board approved the distribution of a cash dividend of NT$8.3 per common share and a stock dividend of NT$0.5 per share. The firm plans to hold a shareholder meeting on April 17.
BANKING
Interest rates fall 0.113%
The five major state-run banks last month saw their average lending interest rates fall to 1.245 percent, down 0.113 percentage points from 1.358 percent in December last year. The five are Bank of Taiwan (臺灣銀行), Taiwan Cooperative Bank (合庫銀行), Land Bank of Taiwan (土地銀行), Hua Nan Commercial Bank (華南銀行) and First Commercial Bank (第一銀行). The decline reflects falling interest rates for consumer loans and those intended for corporate working capital, the central bank said on Monday. Excluding government loans, interest rates averaged 1.341 percent, down 0.017 percentage points from 1.358 percent in December, it said.
EMPLOYMENT
Migrant hiring rules to ease
The Ministry of Labor yesterday said that is has completed draft rules to ease regulations on hiring migrant workers to support the return of China-based or overseas-based businesses. The quota on the proportion of migrant worker has been raised 10 percent, with the new cap set at no more than 40 percent, it said. Qualified employers must contribute a NT$7,000 employment security fee and can begin hiring up to half of their quota of migrant workers. The ministry is also drafting separate amendments to allow dairy farmers to hire more seasonal workers.
EQUITIES
Late buys ensure flat close
Shares closed flat yesterday in Taipei after late-session buying boosted select large-cap stocks to help the broader market recoup most of its earlier losses, dealers said. While the electronics sector remained sluggish, the financial sector got a boost from bargain hunting, they said. The TAIEX ended down 2.38 points, or 0.02 percent, at 10,389.17, after moving between 10,343.56 and 10,403.05. Turnover was NT$133.16 billion. “Today’s narrow fluctuations showed caution toward the slower pace of economic growth at home and abroad,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投信) analyst Alex Huang (黃國偉) said. “As optimism toward a possible deal between the US and China to resolve their trade dispute has been largely factored into share prices, investors shifted their attention back to economic fundamentals.”
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