FTC approves cement deal
The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) yesterday approved TCC International Holding Ltd's (台泥國際集團) acquisition of Chia Hsin Cement Greater China Holding Corp (嘉新水泥中國控股), saying the buyout would not influence competition in the cement market.
The deal allows TCC International Holding's parent company, Taiwan Cement Corp (台灣水泥) -- the nation's largest cement maker -- to control 43.91 percent of Chia Hsin Cement Corp's (嘉新水泥) Chinese unit's shares.
Chia Hsin Cement Greater China mainly focuses on the Chinese market, and its market share in Taiwan was less than 1 percent last year, the commission said in a statement yesterday.
"The deal will not seriously affect the local market," the commission said.
In Hong Kong, shares of TCC International Holding and Chia Hsin Cement Greater China were down by 5.98 percent to HK$8.80 (US$1.12) and 2.58 percent to HK$3.78 respectively yesterday.
TCC International Holding announced its HK$2.6 billion buyout bid last month. The two firms plan to expand their businesses in China through the acquisition.
Marks & Spencer to open units
British retailer Marks & Spencer yesterday announced that it will open two stores in Taipei next month following its Kaohsiung debut in May.
One outlet will be in Tonlin Plaza (統領廣場) on Zhongxiao East Rd and the other in the New York New York shopping mall in Xinyi District. The new stores will offer a complete product range, including clothing for women, men, children, toiletries and food, the company said in a statement.
FTT usage expected to boom
Taiwan's high-speed fiber to home (FTT) usage will grow to more than 2.5 million households in 2010 from 500,000 households this year and 1 million next year, Taipei-based Market Intelligence Center (MIC, 市場情報中心) said yesterday.
The increase will be a boon for Internet phone and Internet TV operators, due to wider bandwidth and faster transmissions, the MIC said.
FSC approves bank branches
The Financial Supervisory Com-mission (FSC) approved applications from UBS AG, Taipei Branch and Mizuho Corporate Bank to expand yesterday.
UBS, which has one outlet in Taipei, applied to add one outlet in Taichung and one in Kaohsiung, while Mizuho, which has a branch in Taipei and another Kaohsiung, applied to open one in Taichung, the FSC said in a statement.
UBS focuses on the wealth management business, while Mizuho Corporate Bank's main targets are corporate customers based in the Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區), the statement said.
The business scope of both banks are different from their local counterparts, and so their expansions would not affect the competitiveness of the local market, the commission said.
The finance regulator also gave a green light to Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) to upgrade its offices in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi to branches.
Synnex income rises 63%
Synnex Technology International Corp (聯強國際), Asia's largest information technology product distributor, yesterday posted NT$1.85 billion (US$56 million) in net income for the first six months of the year, on the back of strong sales of IT products and IC components.
The figure is a 63 percent increase over the same period last year, the firm said in a statement yesterday .
Earnings per share rose to NT$1.74 from last year's NT$1.06. Its second-quarter sales also hit a record high of NT$40.2 billion, a rise of 21 percent from last year.
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
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Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has approved a capital budget of US$31.28 billion for production expansion to meet long-term development needs during the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. The company’s board meeting yesterday approved the capital appropriation plan for purposes such as the installation of advanced technology capacity and fab construction, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement. At an earnings conference last month, TSMC forecast that its capital expenditure for this year would be at the higher end of the US$52 billion to US$56 billion range it forecast in January in response to robust demand for 5G, AI and
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) investment project in Arizona has progressed better than expected, but it still faces challenges such as water and labor shortages, National Development Council (NDC) Minister Yeh Chun-hsien (葉俊顯) said yesterday. Speaking with reporters after visiting TSMC’s Arizona hub and attending the SelectUSA Investment Summit in Maryland last week, Yeh said TSMC’s Arizona site turned a profit of NT$16.14 billion (US$514 million) last year in its first full year of mass production. “TSMC told me it was surprised by the smooth trial run of the first fab, which has left the company optimistic about the project’s outlook,”
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