■ Chang Hwa Bank share sale on
Chang Hwa Commercial Bank (彰化銀行) said it will stick to a plan to sell 1.4 billion shares, or a 22 percent stake, to overseas investors. Chang Hwa has yet to set the pricing for the sale which won shareholders' approval in June, executive vice president Hsieh Chao-nan (謝昭男) said in a telephone interview. Based on the stock's closing price yesterday of NT$19.l0, the sale will be valued at NT$26.7 billion (US$785 million). "Our aim is to find overseas strategic investors either via private placement or global depositary receipts issued by June next year," Hsieh said. If one investor buys the entire 22-percent stake, it will become the bank's single largest shareholder, he said. The Ministry of Finance now holds 13 percent of the bank. Credit Suisse First Boston, which has been hired as financial adviser for the sale, filed invitations to potential overseas investors earlier this week, Hsieh said.
■ Flat-panel suppliers join forces
Some 20 Taiwanese flat-panel equipment suppliers, including Mirle Automation Corp (盟立自動化), formed a research association on Wednesday in a move to boost local supply of equipment to the nation's booming flat-screen industry. Only 12 percent of the equipment used by liquid-crystal display (LCD) panel suppliers, worth NT$14 billion in total, are expected to be supplied by local companies this year, said Sun Houng (孫弘), chairman of Mirle Automation, during a speech after the opening ceremony for the association. The association hoped the rate can be boosted to 50 percent by 2008, which will in turn help Taiwanese LCD panel makers catch up to South Korean rivals in cost saving, Sun said. By 2010, South Korean flat-screen makers, led by Samsung Electronics Co, will have 80 percent of their equipment coming from the nation's companies, Sun said.
■ Tainan gas well exploited
The state-run Chinese Petroleum Corp's (CPC, 中油) effort to drill for natural gas at Tainan County's Kuantien No. 2 well has succeeded, with the deposit estimated at 30 million cubic meters, CPC president Chen Bao-lang (陳寶郎) said yesterday. Chen said the total natural gas deposits of the Kuantien No. 1 and 2 wells amount to at least 370 million cubic meters worth NT$2 billion (US$58.82 million) in market value. A large amount of natural gas was first discovered in Kuantien, the hometown of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), in June. The CPC then decided to dig a second well 550m north of the first well to check if natural gas deposits were available there.
■ LCD price slide may slow
The decline in prices of LCDs used in computers may slow by the end of this month because there is little room left for panel makers to cut prices, according to a market researcher. The average price for a computer-monitor screen measuring 17 inches diagonally will drop by 7 percent to US$195 and for a 15-inch panel by 3 percent to US$165 by the end of the month, Taipei-based WitsView Technology Corp (聯景科技) said in a report. Prices fell about a 10th in the first two weeks of this month as buyers cut inventories, the researcher said earlier. The slide, which started in the first half this year after nearly 18 months of rises, may end this month as prices for benchmark 17-inch panels approach production cost, WitsView said in its report.
■ NT dollar closes lower
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday traded lower against its US counterpart, declining NT$0.058 to close at NT$33.960 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$543 million.
Anna Bhobho, a 31-year-old housewife from rural Zimbabwe, was once a silent observer in her home, excluded from financial and family decisionmaking in the deeply patriarchal society. Today, she is a driver of change in her village, thanks to an electric tricycle she owns. In many parts of rural sub-Saharan Africa, women have long been excluded from mainstream economic activities such as operating public transportation. However, three-wheelers powered by green energy are reversing that trend, offering financial opportunities and a newfound sense of importance. “My husband now looks up to me to take care of a large chunk of expenses,
SECTOR LEADER: TSMC can increase capacity by as much as 20 percent or more in the advanced node part of the foundry market by 2030, an analyst said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to lead its peers in the advanced 2-nanometer process technology, despite competition from Samsung Electronics Co and Intel Corp, TrendForce Corp analyst Joanne Chiao (喬安) said. TSMC’s sophisticated products and its large production scale are expected to allow the company to continue dominating the global 2-nanometer process market this year, Chiao said. The world’s largest contract chipmaker is scheduled to begin mass production of chips made on the 2-nanometer process in its Hsinchu fab in the second half of this year. It would also hold a ceremony on Monday next week to
TECH CLUSTER: The US company’s new office is in the Shalun Smart Green Energy Science City, a new AI industry base and cybersecurity hub in southern Taiwan US chip designer Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) yesterday launched an office in Tainan’s Gueiren District (歸仁), marking a significant milestone in the development of southern Taiwan’s artificial intelligence (AI) industry, the Tainan City Government said in a statement. AMD Taiwan general manager Vincent Chern (陳民皓) presided over the opening ceremony for the company’s new office at the Shalun Smart Green Energy Science City (沙崙智慧綠能科學城), a new AI industry base and cybersecurity hub in southern Taiwan. Facilities in the new office include an information processing center, and a research and development (R&D) center, the Tainan Economic Development Bureau said. The Ministry
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday signed a letter of intent with Alaska Gasline Development Corp (AGDC), expressing an interest to buy liquefied natural gas (LNG) and invest in the latter’s Alaska LNG project, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. Under the agreement, CPC is to participate in the project’s upstream gas investment to secure stable energy resources for Taiwan, the ministry said. The Alaska LNG project is jointly promoted by AGDC and major developer Glenfarne Group LLC, as Alaska plans to export up to 20 million tonnes of LNG annually from 2031. It involves constructing an 1,290km
RSS