Chunghwa under microscope
Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Ling-san (林陵三) ordered an investigation into Chunghwa Telecom Co's (中華電信) decision to buy NT$12 billion (US$345 million) of equipment from Nokia Oyj, a news agency reported.
The ministry began its investigation after Nortel Networks Corp, Canada's largest supplier of phone equipment, filed a complaint against Chunghwa Telecom for passing over its NT$8 billion offer to supply similar equipment, the report said.
Taiwan owns 95.3 percent of the phone company. Nortel has asked Taiwan to explain its evaluation criteria for the bidding, the report said.
Mosel rating cut by S&P
Mosel Vitelic Inc's (茂矽) debt rating was cut one level by Standard & Poor's, which cited losses and NT$16.6 billion (US$479 million) of debt due by June at Taiwan's fifth-largest chipmaker.
Mosel's corporate credit and senior unsecured debt ratings were cut to CCC+ from B-, both of which are junk grade.
The outlook on the rating is negative, which means the ratings company is more inclined to reduce the rating further.
Mosel on Nov. 2 widened its 2002 pre-tax loss forecast for a second time this year, blaming a slower-than-expected recovery in semiconductor demand and expected losses at unit ProMos Technologies Inc (茂德科技). Mosel widened its pre-tax loss forecast to NT$7.94 billion from NT$5.96 billion in August.
Hannstar to sell shares
Hannstar Display Corp (瀚宇彩晶) plans to sell as many as 600 million shares overseas, worth about NT$7.23 billion (US$208 million), to finance expansion.
The nation's fourth largest panel maker yesterday also slashed its 2002 net income forecast 68 percent after prices slumped by about a fifth since July.
HannStar cut its profit forecast to NT$2.62 billion (US$76 million) from the NT$8.17 billion it announced in June.
Ford to expand R&D unit
Ford Motor Co plans to expand its Taiwan research and development unit into a regional center, said Tiffany Wu (吳靜宜), a PR manager for Ford Lio Ho Motor Co.
"To achieve the goal, Ford will invest NT$10 billion (US$287 million) over the next three years in research and development on the island," Wu said.
The Ford Lio Ho Motor is the local joint venture in which the US auto maker has a 70 percent stake.
Apart from Taiwan, Ford has another regional research and development center in Australia.
The Taiwan center is transferring product designs and know-how mainly to Ford's production bases in China, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam.
NT dollar on the rise
The New Taiwan dollar rose yesterday to a one-and-a-half month high against the US dollar on expectations the US Federal Reserve will cut its key interest rates tomorrow after recent US economic reports signaled that the US economy was slowing, dealers said.
The local unit closed up NT$0.097 at NT$34.698 on the Taipei foreign exchange market, after moving between NT$34.675 and NT$34.779 during the session.
Turnover was US$346 million, compared with last Friday's US$ 316 million.
"The selling in the US dollar reflected the anticipation of further rate cuts by the Fed after the unsatisfactory US jobless and car sales data released Friday," a dealer with a foreign bank said.
Agencies
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Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
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