Mosel Vitelic Inc (茂矽), parent of the nation's second-largest memory-chip manufacturer ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德科技), managed to reduce a predicted 2003 loss of NT$8.3 billion by 45 percent to just NT$4.6 billion, the company told the TAIEX in a statement yesterday morning.
\nBut the better-than-expected result does not mean that cash-strapped Mosel is out of the woods yet, as much of the improvement may have come from selling off assets in its core dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chip manufacturing business, analysts said.
\n"The reason that Mosel has revised its earnings/loss is that it sold its DRAM operating assets to ProMOS just before Christmas," said Alfred Ying (應宗傑), an analyst at BNP Paribas in Taipei. "Because of this Mosel booked a big profit."
\nMosel's shares rose NT$0.13, or 6.1 percent, to close at NT$2.28 on the TAIEX following the announcement.
\nOn Christmas Eve, Mosel spokeswoman Peng Chuo-lan (彭卓蘭) said the company planned to sell its DRAM business -- including 100 percent of US subsidiary United Memories Inc and 50 percent of Mosel Vitelic (US) Corp -- to ProMOS for US$120 million.
\nBefore the sale of its DRAM assets, Mosel had seen a surge in DRAM sales, reporting memory chip revenue of NT$4.6 billion in October and November -- more than double the same two-month period a year earlier. Mosel is also selling more chips on behalf of ProMOS after its former partner, Germany's Infineon Technologies AG, pulled out of the joint venture last year over a dispute about who would control the chipmaker.
\nBut with no manufacturing base, Mosel has lost its major revenue generator.
\n"Starting from the sale of its DRAM assets to ProMOS, Mosel's sales will not include DRAM chips and will therefore see a rapid decline," Ying said. "I'm still not very positive about Mosel's future. Its only option is to sell shares in ProMOS."
\nAnother analyst was slightly more optimistic for the company's prospects this year, saying that its shares in ProMOS would ensure its survival.
\n"Mosel's problems are gradually being eased as it still has a lot of shares in ProMOS which they can continue to liquidate to create cash to repay its debts," said James Huang, (
Dutch brewing company Heineken NV yesterday said that it has reached an agreement to acquire a subsidiary brewery of Taiwan’s Sanyo Whisbih Group (三洋維士比集團). Heineken is to assume majority ownership and management rights of the Long Chuan Zuan Co (龍泉鑽興業) brewery in Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔), the Dutch company said. It would become the first multinational brewing company to operate brewery in Taiwan once the acquisition is completed. The deal has been approved by the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Investment Commission, but details of the financial transaction cannot be disclosed at this time, as terms of the settlement have not been completed,
Had Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck hopped on an electric scooter rather than a Vespa in the classic film Roman Holiday, their spin around the Eternal City might have ended in tears. The number of crashes and near-misses involving the two-wheelers has prompted Rome authorities to impose some order on a booming rental market that began two years ago. The havoc came to a head earlier this month when two US tourists attempted a night-time drive down the Spanish Steps, causing more than 25,000 euros (US$26,392) worth of damage to the 18th-century monument. Caught on security footage, the couple in their late 20s
LOOK WHO OWES: China’s exposure to Taiwanese banks was the second-largest, with Luxembourg third, followed by Hong Kong and Japan, the central bank said The US remained the largest debtor country to Taiwan’s banking sector for a 27th consecutive quarter in the first quarter of this year, with its exposure rising 8.3 percent from a quarter earlier on the back of an increase in US bonds, the central bank said on Friday. Data compiled by the central bank showed that outstanding international claims by Taiwanese banks on a direct risk basis to the US stood at US$125.38 billion as of the end of March. Department of Financial Inspection deputy head Pan Ya-hui (潘雅慧) said that the US Federal Reserve’s launch of a rate hike cycle in
GREEN CITY: The company is set to invest US$8 billion to make electric vehicles and batteries for a new city that would rely entirely on renewable energy sources Indonesia said that Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) is considering investing in the country’s new capital city, a move that would bolster the US$34 billion construction project. Hon Hai, which is known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), is looking at setting up an electric bus system and an Internet of Things network at Nusantara, as Indonesia’s new capital is to be called, Indonesian Minister of Investment Bahlil Lahadalia said in a statement yesterday. Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) met with Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Saturday to discuss the company’s plan to invest US$8 billion to build a manufacturing plant