Taiwan Ratings Corp (中華信評), the local arm of Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P), appointed Chang Hwa-ping (張華平) as its president and CEO on Friday, replacing outgoing president Eddy Yang (楊鎮龍), its press statement said yesterday.
“Chang’s appointment reflects S&P’s commitment to further strengthening operations in Taiwan,” the statement said.
Chang, who brings knowledge of the debt markets in Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan, is expected to help develop the nation’s debt market while better serving local investors, it said.
In the past decade, S&P and Taiwan Ratings have been instrumental in building a strong credit culture in Taiwan, thereby supporting the growth of the country’s robust bond market, Chew Ping (周彬), managing director and head of S&P in Greater China, was quoted as saying in the statement.
Taiwan Ratings, which has rated NT$52.2 billion (US$1.6 billion) of debt issuance this year, expects Chang to help the firm meet the increasingly sophisticated needs of the local market, including securitization, while working closely with S&P to service growing cross-strait investment flow, he added.
Chang was involved in Tokyo’s securitization market in senior positions at various global financial institutions before participating in the introduction of structured products in the domestic market as head of the trust department at the Industrial Bank of Taiwan (台灣工銀). Prior to Taiwan Ratings, Chang was managing director of Hong Kong-based Wachovia Securities (美聯證券) and responsible for the growth and development of Wachovia’s structured finance business in Asia.
With its analytical expertise and local presence, Taiwan Ratings has seen robust growth despite intense competition, said Chang Yu-tsung (張毓宗), executive managing director and head of S&P in the Asia-Pacific region.
“The next phase for Taiwan Ratings is to become part of the increasing integration of the region’s growing financial market activity,” he added.
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
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
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,”
RSS