DPP's Chang visits Manila
Former premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) flew to the Philippines yesterday to encourage Taiwanese businesses to invest in Southeast Asia instead of China.
During his three-day trip, the DPP secretary general plans to meet with Labor Secretary Patricia Santo Tomas and Trade Secretary Manuel Roxas II, the DPP said in a statement.
Taipei land values released
The land upon which the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Building sits has been ranked the most expensive land in Taipei City for three consecutive years, according to land market values published yesterday by the city government's Land Department. It has a market value of NT$3.2 million (US$94,117) per ping, but the market value of the building itself is still NT$80,000 per ping lower than it was last year.
Far Eastern bank optimistic
Far Eastern International Bank (遠東銀行), a unit of the nation's largest textile maker, said it expects to post a pretax profit next year after a taking a loss this year on a write-off of NT$6.4 billion (US$184 million) of bad loans.
The lender expects a pretax profit of at least NT$3.6 billion next year and projects a NT$4.5 billion loss this year, vice president Julius Chen said in a telephone interview. Last year, the company had net income of NT$469.1 million and pretax profit of NT$476.7 million.
The bad-loan sale will lower the bank's ratio of loans that are deemed nonperforming to 4.7 percent of total loans, down from 7.1 percent at the end of the third quarter, Chen said.
Rail system still in the red
The Taiwan Railway Administra-tion (台鐵) has continued to operate in the red this year, although the annual deficit for 2002 is expected to be NT$1 billion lower than that of the previous year.
Railway Administration Director Huang Teh-chih (黃德治) made the remarks yesterday and attributed the projected decrease in the deficit to reductions in personnel costs, which accounted for 63 percent of the administration's overall operating costs in 2001.
It is estimated that this ratio will be reduced to 53 percent for this year, he said.
Quanta Display cuts forecast
Quanta Display Inc (廣輝電子), a flat-panel display venture owned by Sharp Corp and Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦), slashed its net income forecast for this year by 98 percent, blaming tumbling prices.
The company cuts its forecast to NT$27 million (US$786,000) from NT$1.3 billion. Quanta Display last week dumped its 2002 pretax profit forecast for a loss after cutting its sales forecast to NT$16.1 billion from NT$18.4 billion.
Quanta Display said it can post a net income this year because of NT$479.8 million in tax credits.
ProMos plans big bond sale
ProMos Technologies Inc (茂德科 技), the country's No. 4 computer memory-chip maker, said it plans to raise US$160 million selling bonds convertible into shares to pay debt.
The company will probably sell the bonds in the first quarter, said ProMos spokesman Albert Lin (林育中).
ProMos' board approved the bond sale on Tuesday, the same day Infineon Technologies AG said it will sell its 30 percent stake in the company because of a dispute with partner Mosel Vitelic Inc (茂矽電子).
NT dollar trades lower
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday traded lower against its US counterpart, declining NT$0.06 to close at NT$34.860 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
Turnover was US$345 million, compared with the previous day's US$352 million.
Agencies
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