Formosa International Hotels Corp (晶華國際酒店集團), Taiwan’s largest listed hotel operator, is in talks to take over the Taipei City Club (台北聯誼會), a company official said yesterday.
“We have reached an initial agreement to take over the banquet and restaurant business of Taipei City Club, but the members and gym are not part of the deal,” Ellen Chang (張筠), Formosa Hotels’ public relations director, said by telephone.
The club is on Minsheng E Road near Songshan Airport, and the increased number of direct flights to China has drawn bankers and others engaged in commercial activity, she said.
Negotiations are still ongoing, and the new operation is not expected to open until after Lunar New Year, Chang said.
The 15-year-old Taipei City Club is located in the basement of the Hontai Building (宏泰大樓). Owned by Hontai Construction (宏泰建設), the club has facilities including banquet halls, restaurants, a sauna and a gym.
Chinese-language media reported yesterday that it might close for good tomorrow because of huge losses, with membership shrinking from a peak of 2,200 to the current 1,400. Clients reportedly have to fork out NT$180,000 to NT$680,000 for membership and a monthly fee of NT$3,800.
Some 160 employees at the club already failed to receive paychecks starting from September. The club lost money for the first time last year, with reports saying the losses amounted to NT$50 million (US$1.54 million).
A number of members who had already bought dining vouchers for the club raised concern yesterday over whether their vouchers would be valid if the club changes hands.
“In the deal with Hontai Construction, we didn’t talk about taking over the dining vouchers. Hontai should resolve all outstanding issues before handing the club over to us,” Chang said.
Many clubs in Taiwan, including Taipei City Club, have changed from exclusive, members-only clubs to include non-members, a public relations firm’s general manager said on condition of anonymity. Her company rented a hall at Taipei City Club some five years ago to hold media events.
“These club houses have to turn to outsiders to explore other revenue sources when membership is stagnant or when the economy doesn’t fare well,” she said.
‘DECENT RESULTS’: The company said it is confident thanks to an improving world economy and uptakes in new wireless and AI technologies, despite US uncertainty Pegatron Corp (和碩) yesterday said it plans to build a new server manufacturing factory in the US this year to address US President Donald Trump’s new tariff policy. That would be the second server production base for Pegatron in addition to the existing facilities in Taoyuan, the iPhone assembler said. Servers are one of the new businesses Pegatron has explored in recent years to develop a more balanced product lineup. “We aim to provide our services from a location in the vicinity of our customers,” Pegatron president and chief executive officer Gary Cheng (鄭光治) told an online earnings conference yesterday. “We
LEAK SOURCE? There would be concern over the possibility of tech leaks if TSMC were to form a joint venture to operate Intel’s factories, an analyst said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday stayed mum after a report said that the chipmaker has pitched chip designers Nvidia Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc and Broadcom Inc about taking a stake in a joint venture to operate Intel Corp’s factories. Industry sources told the Central News Agency (CNA) that the possibility of TSMC proposing to operate Intel’s wafer fabs is low, as the Taiwanese chipmaker has always focused on its core business. There is also concern over possible technology leaks if TSMC were to form a joint venture to operate Intel’s factories, Concord Securities Co (康和證券) analyst Kerry Huang (黃志祺)
It was late morning and steam was rising from water tanks atop the colorful, but opaque-windowed, “soapland” sex parlors in a historic Tokyo red-light district. Walking through the narrow streets, camera in hand, was Beniko — a former sex worker who is trying to capture the spirit of the area once known as Yoshiwara through photography. “People often talk about this neighborhood having a ‘bad history,’” said Beniko, who goes by her nickname. “But the truth is that through the years people have lived here, made a life here, sometimes struggled to survive. I want to share that reality.” In its mid-17th to
‘MAKE OR BREAK’: Nvidia shares remain down more than 9 percent, but investors are hoping CEO Jensen Huang’s speech can stave off fears that the sales boom is peaking Shares in Nvidia Corp’s Taiwanese suppliers mostly closed higher yesterday on hopes that the US artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer would showcase next-generation technologies at its annual AI conference slated to open later in the day. The GPU Technology Conference (GTC) in California is to feature developers, engineers, researchers, inventors and information technology professionals, and would focus on AI, computer graphics, data science, machine learning and autonomous machines. The event comes at a make-or-break moment for the firm, as it heads into the next few quarters, with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s (黃仁勳) keynote speech today seen as having the ability to
RSS