■ELECTRONICS
Toshiba to raise US$5bn
Japanese electronics giant Toshiba Corp plans to raise approximately ¥500 billion (US$5 billion) in a bid to reverse its worsening financial situation, the Nikkei Shimbun and Kyodo News reported yesterday. Toshiba is considering procuring ¥300 billion in capital through a public stock offering, they said, quoting industry sources. The company will also ask banks and other financial institutions to buy ¥200 billion in subordinated bonds by September, the sources were quoted as saying. The new capital will be used to improve its semiconductor and nuclear power operations as the company is expected to incur huge losses amid the global economic slump, they said.
■INVESTMENT
VC investments dip 61%
US venture capital (VC) investments sank 61 percent in the first quarter, dropping to the lowest level in 12 years as financiers became even warier about sinking funds into startups during a deepening recession. In yet-another indicator that a pullback that began last summer is not abating, VC investments totaled US$3 billion during the first three months of this year, said a report released yesterday by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and Thomson Reuters. In the year-ago quarter, investments totaled US$7.74 billion.
■INVESTMENT
China SWF eyes Europe
China’s US$200 billion sovereign wealth fund plans to include Europe in its targets for investment this year, after a year in which it avoided the continent because of perceived trade protectionism. “Europe has started to welcome investments” without attaching conditions, China Investment Corp’s (CIC, 中國投資公司) chairman Lou Jiwei (樓繼偉) said yesterday at the Boao Forum in Hainan Province. “During the world financial crisis, sovereign wealth funds have become more appealing” and less frightening, he said. Beijing-based CIC’s investments have included stakes in Blackstone Group LP and Morgan Stanley.
■TRADE
Vietnam to cut tariffs
Vietnam will reduce some tariffs on goods and services to push up demand in the face of an economic slowdown, according to a decision signed by the prime minister. Value-added tax (VAT) on garment and textile products, cement and motorbikes will be reduced by 50 percent between May 1 and Dec. 31, said the ruling signed on Thursday. Registration fees for cars with fewer than 10 seats will also be reduced by half, while garment and footwear enterprises will benefit from a 30 percent cut in corporate income tax for the fourth quarter of last year, it said.
■BANKING
Two US banks shuttered
Banks in Missouri and Nevada were seized by US regulators on Friday, bringing this year’s tally to 25 and equaling the number of banks shuttered in all of last year, as a recession drives up unemployment and home foreclosures. American Sterling Bank of Sugar Creek, Missouri, was shut by the Office of Thrift Supervision and Great Basin Bank of Nevada in Elko was closed by the Nevada Financial Institutions Division. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) was named receiver of the banks with combined assets of US$451.9 million and deposits of US$393.3 million, the FDIC said in e-mailed statements. Regulators closed 25 banks last year, the most since 1993.
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
IN THE AIR: While most companies said they were committed to North American operations, some added that production and costs would depend on the outcome of a US trade probe Leading local contract electronics makers Wistron Corp (緯創), Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), Inventec Corp (英業達) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) are to maintain their North American expansion plans, despite Washington’s 20 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods. Wistron said it has long maintained a presence in the US, while distributing production across Taiwan, North America, Southeast Asia and Europe. The company is in talks with customers to align capacity with their site preferences, a company official told the Taipei Times by telephone on Friday. The company is still in talks with clients over who would bear the tariff costs, with the outcome pending further
Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose to No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) at 348th, Pegatron Corp (和碩) at 461st, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) at 494th and Wistron Corp (緯創) at
NEGOTIATIONS: Semiconductors play an outsized role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development and are a major driver of the Taiwan-US trade imbalance With US President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on semiconductors, Taiwan is expected to face a significant challenge, as information and communications technology (ICT) products account for more than 70 percent of its exports to the US, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said on Friday. Compared with other countries, semiconductors play a disproportionately large role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development, Lien said. As the sixth-largest contributor to the US trade deficit, Taiwan recorded a US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US last year — up from US$47.8 billion in 2023 — driven by strong
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