TWSE plans new system
Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp (TWSE, 台灣證交所) is planning an off-market trading system for shares traded on the bourse, the Dow Jones Newswire reported yesterday, citing Lawrence Shan (單高年), senior vice president at the exchange’s corporate planning and communications department.
The system would allow listed shares to be traded over the counter. At the moment, after-hours trading is confined mainly to block trades.
Shan said the trading mechanism would require a legislative amendment before it can be implemented, and the plan is still at a very early stage.
Meanwhile, TWSE president Samuel Hsu (許仁壽) said there was no plan to remove the daily equity-trading limit “soon” on concern it may cause volatility in the market.
“We will evaluate removing the trading limit when the economy recovers,” Hsu said in an interview with the Bloomberg. “We want investors to regain confidence first.”
LCD giant invests in LEDs
AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), Taiwan’s largest maker of liquid-crystal displays (LCDs), said it paid NT$384 million (US$11 million) for a stake in Lighthouse Technology Inc.
The stock was bought through a private placement, and AU Optronics owns 35 percent of the maker of light-emitting diodes (LED) after the transaction, the Hsinchu-based company said in an exchange filing yesterday.
Hong Kong ties boosted
Taiwan and Hong Kong agreed to strengthen economic and trade ties, stepping toward regional cooperation in southern China after the relations across the Taiwan Strait improved last year.
“Today’s talks are a breakthrough and a good beginning is already half of the success,” Hong Kong Finance Secretary John Tsang (曾俊華) said yesterday at a Hong Kong-Taiwan inter-city forum, the first between governments of the two sides held in the city.
Taiwan, Hong Kong and Guangdong and Fujian provinces should form a regional economic alliance to improve their competitiveness, Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) said on Tuesday after meeting in Hong Kong with Stephen Lam (林瑞麟), the city’s secretary for constitutional and mainland affairs.
Cathay United to buy debt
Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行), a subsidiary under Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), plans to buy back part of its US$500 million in overseas subordinated debts, issued in 2005 with a 5.5 percent interest rate, before May 12, the bank’s exchange filing on Tuesday.
The bank will put down no more than US$125 million to redeem the 15-year debts ahead of its 2020 maturity date with a likely acquiring price of between US$820 and US$920 for every US$1,000 in debt, its exchange filing said.
The bank said that it would organize a fair Dutch auction to negotiate the acquiring price.
A Dutch auction is a type of auction were the auctioneer begins with a high asking price, which is lowered until participants are willing to accept the auctioneer’s price, or a predetermined reserve price (the seller’s minimum acceptable price) is reached.
New Office coming next year
Microsoft Corp’s next version of its Office desktop programs will reach consumers next year, though not likely in conjunction with the Windows 7 operating system.
Microsoft is set to announce today that Office 2010 will be finished and ready to send to manufacturers in the first half of next year.
From there, it can take six weeks to four months or more for the programs to reach PC users, said Chris Capossela, a senior vice president in the Microsoft group that makes Office.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic gas stations are to fall NT$0.2 and NT$0.1 per liter respectively this week, even though international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices continued rising last week, as the US Energy Information Administration reported a larger-than-expected drop in US commercial crude oil inventories, CPC said in a statement. Based on the company’s floating oil price formula, the cost of crude oil rose 2.38 percent last week from a week earlier, it said. News that US President Donald Trump plans a “secondary