Astro Corp (泰偉電子) and Firich Enterprises Co (伍豐科技), gambling-related stocks, fell in Taipei trading after residents voted against a government plan to allow Taiwan’s first casinos in Penghu.
Astro, a software maker for arcade game machines, lost 7 percent to NT$73.4, the most since June 15, at the close on the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Firich Enterprises, a point-of-sale terminal maker that invested in a lottery business, slid 6.9 percent to NT$78.10, also the most since June 15. The benchmark TAIEX declined 0.8 percent.
Some 56 percent of residents voted against a plan to allow casinos on Penghu, the local government said in a press release on Saturday.
The poll may delay developers’ plans until at least 2012, when the law will allow a repeat referendum. AMZ Holdings PLC owns 11 hectares on Penghu and had planned to bid for a license as soon as the government sets up a regulator and gaming guidelines, the company said in January.
“Investors are disappointed with the result,” Andy Wei, who helps manage the equivalent of US$3.1 billion at PCA Securities Investment Trust Co (保誠投信), said in an interview yesterday.
“If it were passed, there could be a lot of business opportunities and may result in new gambling-related companies. We are now back to square one,” Wei said.
Taiwan legalized casinos in January on its outlying islands of Kinmen, Matsu and Penghu, pending approval in a referendum by local residents.
The government aims to boost tourism and lure gamblers from Macau as a global recession cuts into earnings from exports and slows domestic consumption. Casinos remain banned on Taiwan proper.
“You have to wait three years to get Penghu to go through another referendum, but you do have other outlying islands such as Kinmen, which is only 7 kilometers off the coast of mainland China,” said Sean Monaghan, an independent business consultant and gaming analyst.
“You’ve really got to expect the government to put in a lot more hard work in planning and communicating potential regulations. There is still an awful lot unknown for everyone,” he said.
Casino operators including Las Vegas Sands Corp are building gaming resorts in Asian cities such as Macau and Singapore, helping to boost the number of visitors and draw conventions and similar events.
AMZ said in January it plans to invest as much as US$300 million to build a five-star, 500-room resort on Penghu in order to win a casino license.
Taiwan’s economy will probably contract 3.52 percent this quarter after the economy slipped into its first recession since 2001. The nation’s jobless rate climbed a 12th straight month to a record high of 6.07 percent last month.
TEMPORARY TRUCE: China has made concessions to ease rare earth trade controls, among others, while Washington holds fire on a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods China is effectively suspending implementation of additional export controls on rare earth metals and terminating investigations targeting US companies in the semiconductor supply chain, the White House announced. The White House on Saturday issued a fact sheet outlining some details of the trade pact agreed to earlier in the week by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) that aimed to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Under the deal, China is to issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite “for the benefit of US end users and their suppliers
Dutch chipmaker Nexperia BV’s China unit yesterday said that it had established sufficient inventories of finished goods and works-in-progress, and that its supply chain remained secure and stable after its parent halted wafer supplies. The Dutch company suspended supplies of wafers to its Chinese assembly plant a week ago, calling it “a direct consequence of the local management’s recent failure to comply with the agreed contractual payment terms,” Reuters reported on Friday last week. Its China unit called Nexperia’s suspension “unilateral” and “extremely irresponsible,” adding that the Dutch parent’s claim about contractual payment was “misleading and highly deceptive,” according to a statement
Nissan Motor Co has agreed to sell its global headquarters in Yokohama for ￥97 billion (US$630 million) to a group sponsored by Taiwanese autoparts maker Minth Group (敏實集團), as the struggling automaker seeks to shore up its financial position. The acquisition is led by a special purchase company managed by KJR Management Ltd, a Japanese real-estate unit of private equity giant KKR & Co, people familiar with the matter said. KJR said it would act as asset manager together with Mizuho Real Estate Management Co. Nissan is undergoing a broad cost-cutting campaign by eliminating jobs and shuttering plants as it grapples
The Chinese government has issued guidance requiring new data center projects that have received any state funds to only use domestically made artificial intelligence (AI) chips, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. In recent weeks, Chinese regulatory authorities have ordered such data centers that are less than 30 percent complete to remove all installed foreign chips, or cancel plans to purchase them, while projects in a more advanced stage would be decided on a case-by-case basis, the sources said. The move could represent one of China’s most aggressive steps yet to eliminate foreign technology from its critical infrastructure amid a
RSS