■ FSC approves Shinsei purchase
The Financial Supervisory Commission yesterday approved Shinsei Bank Ltd's purchase of a 31.8 percent stake in Jih Sun Financial Holding Co (日盛金控), the nation's 12th-largest financial group by assets.
The financial regulator also agreed that Shinsei could convert its purchase of 630 million Jih Sun Financial preferred shares into common shares in five years.
In May the Japanese bank reached an agreement with Jih Sun to invest in Jih Sun through a mix of common and preferred shares in a private placement.
After the conversion, Shinsei is expected to own a more than 50 percent stake in Jih Sun, which will make the lender the first Taiwanese financial holding company to be controlled by foreign investors.
■ Elpida mulls new factory
Elpida Memory Inc, Japan's largest maker of computer memory chips, said it may build a new factory and is considering locations in Japan and Taiwan to meet growing demand for semiconductors.
Elpida may build its next plant in Taiwan, the Asahi newspaper reported yesterday, without saying where it got the information.
The company is considering building a plant in Taiwan because of the favorable tax incentives offered here, the paper said.
Company spokeswoman Tomoko Kobayashi denied the report saying the company is looking at various locations for a prospective site but nothing has been decided.
``We are considering building a new factory because our Hiroshima plant will reach full capacity in fiscal 2008,'' Kobayashi said.
The paper said that the planned factory will aim at producing 100,000 300-mm wafers a month.
■ TAITRA to ink Peru agreement
The Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA, 外貿協會) is scheduled to sign a cooperation agreement with the Exporters Association of Peru (ADEX) today to step up trade and investment information exchanges and mutual visits by trade delegations, a TAITRA official said yesterday.
ADEX General Manager Alvaro Luis Barrenechea Chavez and his TAITRA counterpart will ink the agreement on behalf of their respective organizations, the official said, adding that with more than 1,000 members, ADEX -- which was founded in 1973 -- is one of the leading industrial and business organizations in Peru.
According to official statistics, two-way trade exchanges between Taiwan and Peru amounted to US$462 million last year, up 26.36 percent year-on-year, making Peru the nation's third largest trade partner in South America behind Brazil and Chile.
■ Energy seminar to be held
A Taiwan-Canada seminar on energy development and environmental protection is scheduled to be held from Aug. 19-20 in Ottawa under the auspices of the Ottawa Chapter of the North America Taiwanese Engineers' Association (NATEA) and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Canada.
NATEA's Ottawa chapter chairman Yen Kung-chan (閻公展) said the seminar will focus on how to use environmental protection technologies to reduce various kinds of pollution which may be brought about by energy development.
Yen said government officials, industrialists, as well as scholars and experts from Taiwan and Canada will be invited to attend the conference to discuss issues concerning renewable energy development and environmental protection technology applications and share their experience in these areas.
■ NT dollar gains on greenback
The New Taiwan dollar turned strong against its US counterpart yesterday, gaining NT$0.157 to close at NT$32.740 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
Turnover was US$667 million.
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TECH WINNERS: Taiwan and South Korea reported robust trade, which suggests that they have critical advantages in the rapidly expanding AI supply chain, an official said Exports last month surged to a new high, as booming demand tied to artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure fueled shipments of advanced technology components, underscoring the nation’s pivotal role in the global semiconductor supply chain. Outbound shipments climbed to US$80.18 billion, the highest ever for a single month, rising 61.8 percent from a year earlier and marking the 29th consecutive month of growth, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. “The surge was driven primarily by global investment in AI infrastructure,” Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) said. The mass production of next-generation AI computing systems has accelerated procurement across the semiconductor supply
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