■ Chinatrust bids for Lippo
Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金控), Taiwan's fourth-biggest financial services company, and Export and Industry Bank of the Philippines said they may bid to buy 52 percent of PT Lippo Bank, Indonesia's 11th-largest lender.
Yesterday was the deadline for investors to submit bids for the stake, which is valued at 918 billion rupiah (US$109 million) at the current market price. The winning bidder will be named at the end of the month.
"We already have some operations in Southeast Asia and we believe we have more expertise than other Taiwanese banks to run the business in the region," said Lin Shiaw-ping (林孝平), Chinatrust Financial's chief strategic officer.
Indonesia is selling stakes in banks and other distressed assets to raise funds to cover a budget deficit estimated at 24.4 trillion rupiah (US$2.9 billion) this year, or 1.2 percent of the country's GDP.
■ Fitch positive about banks
The outlook for the nation's banking sector is becoming more positive, after several years of deterioration, Fitch Ratings said in a statement yesterday.
"Taiwan's banking sector is expected to see further progress in its restructuring efforts that were launched in 2002 when many, though not all, banks took large charges to cover the cost of non-performing loan [NPL] sales and charge-offs," Fitch said.
In addition to writing off NPLs, Taiwanese banks have been rebuilding their capital base, improving their formerly very unsophisticated credit culture and diversifying away from traditional corporate loans toward consumer banking.
Despite these positive achievements, the international rating agency said challenges remain for Taiwanese banks. "As banks have come into line with regulatory guidelines concerning asset quality, there is less urgency in addressing remaining bad debts. There is also uncertainty over the source of capital support for weak banks," it said.
With a fragmented market in their home market, further consolidation appears inevitable for Taiwanese banks and many of them will target overseas expansion in the Greater China, Fitch said.
■ New medicine shop opens
Beijing Tongrentang Typhoon Co (北京同仁堂太豐公司), a Taiwan-based offshoot of a Chinese company that made medicine for the emperor, yesterday opened its first shop in Taipei, tapping growing demand for traditional remedies.
The Taiwanese-owned licensee plans to set up 60 shops in Taiwan within three years, Gloria Yang, the manager of the store, said in a telephone interview. The shop's products include herbs imported from China and herbal wines made in Taiwan according to Beijing Tongrentang's recipes, she said.
"Taiwan's health market is mature now, presenting opportunities that allow us to set up our first flagship," Yang said.
■ AU Optronics sales rise
Taiwan's largest maker of panels for flat-screen displays, AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), yesterday reported net sales for last year of NT$104.8 billion, up 38.5 percent from the previous year.
Shipments of large-size panels at the company totaled 11.85 million last year, up 42.4 percent from 2002, and medium-sized panel shipments increased by 135.7 percent to 21.43 million units over the same period, according to company statistics.
■ NT dollar strengthens
The New Taiwan dollar continued to gain ground against its US counterpart, edging up NT$0.021 to close at NT$33.809 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
Turnover was US$1.089 billion.
Taiwan’s technology protection rules prohibits Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) from producing 2-nanometer chips abroad, so the company must keep its most cutting-edge technology at home, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks in response to concerns that TSMC might be forced to produce advanced 2-nanometer chips at its fabs in Arizona ahead of schedule after former US president Donald Trump was re-elected as the next US president on Tuesday. “Since Taiwan has related regulations to protect its own technologies, TSMC cannot produce 2-nanometer chips overseas currently,” Kuo said at a meeting of the legislature’s
GEOPOLITICAL ISSUES? The economics ministry said that political factors should not affect supply chains linking global satellite firms and Taiwanese manufacturers Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) asked Taiwanese suppliers to transfer manufacturing out of Taiwan, leading to some relocating portions of their supply chain, according to sources employed by and close to the equipment makers and corporate documents. A source at a company that is one of the numerous subcontractors that provide components for SpaceX’s Starlink satellite Internet products said that SpaceX asked their manufacturers to produce outside of Taiwan because of geopolitical risks, pushing at least one to move production to Vietnam. A second source who collaborates with Taiwanese satellite component makers in the nation said that suppliers were directly
Top Taiwanese officials yesterday moved to ease concern about the potential fallout of Donald Trump’s return to the White House, making a case that the technology restrictions promised by the former US president against China would outweigh the risks to the island. The prospect of Trump’s victory in this week’s election is a worry for Taipei given the Republican nominee in the past cast doubt over the US commitment to defend it from Beijing. But other policies championed by Trump toward China hold some appeal for Taiwan. National Development Council Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) described the proposed technology curbs as potentially having
TECH WAR CONTINUES: The suspension of TSMC AI chips and GPUs would be a heavy blow to China’s chip designers and would affect its competitive edge Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, is reportedly to halt supply of artificial intelligence (AI) chips and graphics processing units (GPUs) made on 7-nanometer or more advanced process technologies from next week in order to comply with US Department of Commerce rules. TSMC has sent e-mails to its Chinese AI customers, informing them about the suspension starting on Monday, Chinese online news outlet Ijiwei.com (愛集微) reported yesterday. The US Department of Commerce has not formally unveiled further semiconductor measures against China yet. “TSMC does not comment on market rumors. TSMC is a law-abiding company and we are