Taiwanese companies with natural resource-related technologies are potential investment targets for emerging Chinese private equity (PE) funds, venture capitalists from across the Taiwan Strait told a seminar in Taipei yesterday.
“We are in search of downstream companies in Taiwan or around the world that can help beef up the competitiveness of Chinese companies in the development of natural resource or alternative energy-related industries,” Katherine Wang (王曉濱), chairwoman of Xiamen-based Power Capital Corp (萬能資本), said on the sidelines of the forum on cross-strait mergers and acquisitions (M&A).
Local companies, which are no strangers to doing business in China, would be the best partners for Chinese companies because of their experience in international markets, business know-how and branding, which would allow them to jointly capitalize on a bigger world market, including China’s domestic market, she said.
Wang said the size of yuan-denominated private-equity (PE) funds in China would grow 10-fold in five years to 1 trillion yuan (US$146.5 billion), 25 percent of which would be funded by the Chinese government.
She currently manages nearly 2 billion yuan in PE funds.
Tu Ying-tzyong (杜英宗), chairman of Citigroup Global Markets Inc’s Taipei branch, said businesses across the Strait could deepen their cooperation in the supply chain.
There was a good opportunity for the high-tech sector in both Taiwan and China to jointly develop specifications for emerging technologies such as the handset, e-paper and telecommunications industries that will be followed by the world’s manufacturers by leveraging the domestic demand in Chinese market, Tu said.
Many venture capitalists at the forum urged governments on both sides of the Strait to speed up the signing of a memorandum of understanding on financial supervision and an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) to spur merger and acquisitions between Taiwanese and Chinese firms.
Once Asia becomes an important destination for global PE funds, including those in China, the Taiwan Stock Exchange would be an alternative option for small and medium-sized high-tech companies to go public, and could become the “NASDAQ of Asia,” said Huang Chi-yuan (黃齊元), vice chairman of Polaris Securities Co (寶來證券) and chairman of the Taiwan M&A and PE Council (台灣併購與私募協會).
Tu said the idea that the TAIEX could become the NASDAQ of Asia was far-fetched. It would be better for local regulators to make dual listings on the Taipei and Shanghai bourses a priority.
In his keynote address to the forum, Xiong Yan (熊焰), chairman of China Beijing Equity Exchange (CBEX), drew an analogy between Chinese, Taiwanese and Western venture capitalists and elementary, high-school and college students.
China’s PE sector was like an elementary school student who could learn from the advanced skills of the high-schoolers in Taipei, while Western competitors were like college students, he said.
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
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
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
RSS