HEALTHCARE
Dr Wu to issue dividend
Dr Wu Skincare Co Ltd (達爾膚生醫科技) yesterday said that shareholders approved its proposal to issue a cash dividend of NT$10 per share this year. With shares yesterday closing 9.92 percent higher at NT$90.90, the proposed payout represented a dividend yield of 11 percent. Shareholders also approved another proposal to give the board of directors greater flexibility in planning future cash dividends, the company said in an e-mail. Dr Wu reported consolidated revenue of NT$1.01 billion (US$33.5 million) for last year, up 5.32 percent from a year earlier. In the first three quarters of last year, earnings per share reached NT$2.46, compared with NT$1.17 in the same period in 2018.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Mosel Vitelic reports losses
Mosel Vitelic Inc (茂矽), which provides wafer foundry services, yesterday reported net losses of NT$397 million for last year, as the company booked asset impairment charges on reinvestment businesses, while revenue and sales volume declined from a year earlier. The company posted losses per share of NT$2.56 for last year, compared with earnings per share of NT$1.54 the previous year. Order visibility remained good through the end of this quarter, although it would be too early to gauge the effects of an outbreak of COVID-19 in China on its business, it said.
FINANCE
FFTC secures NT$6bn loan
Fina Finance & Trading Co (FFTC, 合迪) yesterday secured a three-year, NT$6 billion syndicated loan from a group of banks, the company said in a statement. FFTC is a subsidiary of Chailease Holding Co Ltd (中租控股), the nation’s top leasing services provider. The banks involved in the loan package are led by Taiwan Cooperative Bank (合作金庫銀行), while Bank of Taiwan (台灣銀行) and Far Eastern International Bank (遠東國際商銀) are to serve as mandated lead arrangers, FFTC said. The firm said that it aims to diversify funding resources for business expansion, adding that the new funds would be used to improve its financial structure.
EQUITIES
Market fundamentals strong
Strong market fundamentals are good for the local stock market, the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) said yesterday, adding that the dividend yield ratio remains high and listed companies show a strong willingness to deliver dividends. The exchange said in a statement that the yields of Taiwanese stocks are higher than their global peers. Last year, TWSE-listed companies distributed cash dividends totaling NT$1.3 trillion and the price-to-earnings ratio averaged about 19.57 as of Dec. 31 last year, with the cash dividend ratio reaching about 3.67 percent, it said. “These solid share dividends have kept loyalty high among both domestic and foreign investors,” the exchange said.
INVESTMENT
Nomura eyes sale of unit
Nomura Holdings Inc is exploring a sale of its Taiwanese asset management unit, people with knowledge of the matter said. The Japanese firm is working with Goldman Sachs Group Inc on the potential sale of Nomura Asset Management Taiwan Ltd (野村投信), the people said. Nomura aims to value the unit at about US$500 million, they said. Nomura bought the unit from ING Groep NV for an undisclosed amount in 2014, becoming the first Japanese company to enter the Taiwanese asset management market. The unit could draw interest from other global asset managers, the people said. Representatives for Nomura and Goldman Sachs declined to comment.
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],”
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
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained