New presidents named
Three subsidiaries of the Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), the nation's biggest business conglomerate, yesterday appointed new presidents to take the helms of the companies, effective yesterday.
In separate filings to the Taiwan Stock Exchange, Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said executive vice president Su Chi-yi (蘇啟邑) has taken over the president position from Wilfred Wang (王文潮), who is also chairman of the company.
Wu Chia-chau (吳嘉昭), Nan Ya Plastics Corp's (南亞塑膠) executive vice president has been promoted to president, taking over the position from chairman Wu Chin-jen (吳欽仁).
Formosa Chemical and Fiber Corp (台化) chairman Wong Wen-yuan (王文淵) has handed his president position to vice president Hong Fu-yuan (洪福源), the filing said.
The new appointments showed the group is handing management of the companies to professional managers from chairman Wang Yung-ching's (王永慶) family to enhance corporate efficiency, a company official said.
Aeon to liquidate Taiwan unit
Aeon Co, Japan's second-biggest retailer, said it will liquidate its wholly owned unit in Taiwan, shifting its focus to China.
The subsidiary, which operated one store, generated sales of NT$1.4 billion (US$43.2 million) last business year, Aeon said in a release yesterday. The liquidation will have no impact on its earnings for the current fiscal year, the parent company said.
Aeon, facing stagnant sales growth in Japan, plans to develop shopping centers in China around its flagship Jusco stores to attract customers and compete with Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Carrefour SA.
CPC to restart processing plant
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) plans to restart a fire-damaged crude processing unit within four weeks, a company official said.
The facility in southern Taiwan has been shut since Oct. 26, when a pump leak caused a fire.
The company, based in Taipei, has three refineries with a total capacity of 720,000 barrels a day. CPC closed a 50,000 barrel-a-day unit in 2005 permanently because of local residents' concern over pollution. It controls about 75 percent of Taiwan's gasoline and diesel markets.
Flight fuel surcharge to increase
The fuel surcharge on air tickets issued after Nov. 15 will be increased, the Civil Aeronautics Administration announced on Thursday. The fuel surcharge for short-haul flights -- flights from Taipei to Asian destinations -- will be increased by US$2.5 per sector to US$20.
The surcharge for long-haul flights, including those to Australia and New Zealand, will increase by US$6.5 per sector to US$52 per ticket.
The rate increases reflect rising oil prices, the administration said.
Citic and Bear Stearns link up
China's Citic Securities Co (中信證券) said yesterday its board has approved an alliance with US investment bank Bear Stearns Cos that gives the companies cross-ownership of each other.
The transaction is still pending approval from Chinese and US regulators, China's largest securities firm said in a statement.
Bear Stearns and Citic Securities last month agreed in principle to invest about US$1 billion in each other for minority stakes that could be expanded. They will also operate a 50-50 joint venture in Hong Kong to offer capital market services across Asia.
The investment is the biggest of its kind between a US and Chinese financial institution and highlights China's increasing strength in global financial markets.
The New Taiwan dollar is on the verge of overtaking the yuan as Asia’s best carry-trade target given its lower risk of interest-rate and currency volatility. A strategy of borrowing the New Taiwan dollar to invest in higher-yielding alternatives has generated the second-highest return over the past month among Asian currencies behind the yuan, based on the Sharpe ratio that measures risk-adjusted relative returns. The New Taiwan dollar may soon replace its Chinese peer as the region’s favored carry trade tool, analysts say, citing Beijing’s efforts to support the yuan that can create wild swings in borrowing costs. In contrast,
Nvidia Corp’s demand for advanced packaging from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) remains strong though the kind of technology it needs is changing, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said yesterday, after he was asked whether the company was cutting orders. Nvidia’s most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chip, Blackwell, consists of multiple chips glued together using a complex chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) advanced packaging technology offered by TSMC, Nvidia’s main contract chipmaker. “As we move into Blackwell, we will use largely CoWoS-L. Of course, we’re still manufacturing Hopper, and Hopper will use CowoS-S. We will also transition the CoWoS-S capacity to CoWos-L,” Huang said
VERTICAL INTEGRATION: The US fabless company’s acquisition of the data center manufacturer would not affect market competition, the Fair Trade Commission said The Fair Trade Commission has approved Advanced Micro Devices Inc’s (AMD) bid to fully acquire ZT International Group Inc for US$4.9 billion, saying it would not hamper market competition. As AMD is a fabless company that designs central processing units (CPUs) used in consumer electronics and servers, while ZT is a data center manufacturer, the vertical integration would not affect market competition, the commission said in a statement yesterday. ZT counts hyperscalers such as Microsoft Corp, Amazon.com Inc and Google among its major clients and plays a minor role in deciding the specifications of data centers, given the strong bargaining power of
TARIFF SURGE: The strong performance could be attributed to the growing artificial intelligence device market and mass orders ahead of potential US tariffs, analysts said The combined revenue of companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange and the Taipei Exchange for the whole of last year totaled NT$44.66 trillion (US$1.35 trillion), up 12.8 percent year-on-year and hit a record high, data compiled by investment consulting firm CMoney showed on Saturday. The result came after listed firms reported a 23.92 percent annual increase in combined revenue for last month at NT$4.1 trillion, the second-highest for the month of December on record, and posted a 15.63 percent rise in combined revenue for the December quarter at NT$12.25 billion, the highest quarterly figure ever, the data showed. Analysts attributed the
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