Shin Kong injects funds
The board of Shin Kong Financial Holding Co (新光金控) yesterday approved injecting NT$18 billion (US$556.5 million) into subsidiary Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽) by taking up the life insurer’s common shares, the company said in a press statement.
The financial services provider said that the capital injection will be funded by the proceeds of NT$13.1 billion (US$406 million) from its issuance of global depository receipts in July and another NT$5.3 billion to be raised via the issuance of common shares to be completed on Dec. 10.
Meanwhile, Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) yesterday said in a press statement that its Shanghai-based non-life insurance subsidiary has received a regulatory approval in Fujian Province to become the first Taiwanese non-life insurer to set up presence there.
Cathay seeks Shanghai branch
Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) will seek to upgrade its representative office in Shanghai to a branch and is hoping the new branch will undertake business in Chinese yuan, company president Chen Tsu-pei (陳祖培) said on Thursday.
Chen said that upgrading its liaison office in Shanghai will be the Cathay group’s priority and that it will involve an investment of 200 million yuan (US$29.2 million).
The company expects to begin earning profits when the business turnover of the new branch reaches US$160 million, Chen said.
Delta unveils hybrid
Delta Electronics Inc (台達電子) yesterday unveiled its newly developed gasoline-electric hybrid propulsion system, making it the first Taiwanese company to enter the sector.
The company said the system is undergoing road tests, and preliminary results show that the system’s fuel consumption is only 33 percent to 50 percent of conventional gasoline engines.
The system is expected to enter mass production within 18 months, which will increase the company’s annual revenue by NT$10 billion within three years, Delta said.
Simon Chang (張群海), general manager of Delta’s Industrial Automation Business Unit, said with extensive design and manufacturing experience in automobile electronics components, Delta enjoys an advantage over other players in the industry when it comes to the automobile electronics market.
Chang said his company is planning to cooperate with a Chinese automobile company in manufacturing the propulsion system, in light of the vast hybrid vehicle market in China as environmental awareness continues to increase.
CSBC in power talks
CSBC Corp, Taiwan (台灣國際造船), the nation’s leading shipbuilder, said it was in talks with China Guangdong Nuclear Power Holdings Co (廣東核電集團) on possible power plant assembly orders, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported yesterday, citing CSBC chairman Cheng Wen-long (鄭文隆). The newspaper said the Kaohsiung-based shipbuilder hoped to use its experience as the containment vessel contractor for Taiwan Power Co’s (台電) third and fourth nuclear reactors to tap the nuclear power business in China, after it saw container ship orders hit by delays and cancellations amid the global economic crisis.
NT dollar declines
The New Taiwan dollar lost ground against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, declining NT$0.101 to close at NT$32.345.
A total of US$1.33 billion changed hands during the day’s trading.
Japanese technology giant Softbank Group Corp said Tuesday it has sold its stake in Nvidia Corp, raising US$5.8 billion to pour into other investments. It also reported its profit nearly tripled in the first half of this fiscal year from a year earlier. Tokyo-based Softbank said it sold the stake in Silicon Vally-based Nvidia last month, a move that reflects its shift in focus to OpenAI, owner of the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT. Softbank reported its profit in the April-to-September period soared to about 2.5 trillion yen (about US$13 billion). Its sales for the six month period rose 7.7 percent year-on-year
CRESTING WAVE: Companies are still buying in, but the shivers in the market could be the first signs that the AI wave has peaked and the collapse is upon the world Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reported a new monthly record of NT$367.47 billion (US$11.85 billion) in consolidated sales for last month thanks to global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Last month’s figure represented 16.9 percent annual growth, the slowest pace since February last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 11 percent. Cumulative sales in the first 10 months of the year grew 33.8 percent year-on-year to NT$3.13 trillion, a record for the same period in the company’s history. However, the slowing growth in monthly sales last month highlights uncertainty over the sustainability of the AI boom even as
AI BOOST: Next year, the cloud and networking product business is expected to remain a key revenue pillar for the company, Hon Hai chairman Young Liu said Manufacturing giant Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday posted its best third-quarter profit in the company’s history, backed by strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Net profit expanded 17 percent annually to NT$57.67 billion (US$1.86 billion) from NT$44.36 billion, the company said. On a quarterly basis, net profit soared 30 percent from NT$44.36 billion, it said. Hon Hai, which is Apple Inc’s primary iPhone assembler and makes servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s AI accelerators, said earnings per share expanded to NT$4.15 from NT$3.55 a year earlier and NT$3.19 in the second quarter. Gross margin improved to 6.35 percent,
BUST FEARS: While a KMT legislator asked if an AI bubble could affect Taiwan, the DGBAS minister said the sector appears on track to continue growing The local property market has cooled down moderately following a series of credit control measures designed to contain speculation, the central bank said yesterday, while remaining tight-lipped about potential rule relaxations. Lawmakers in a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee voiced concerns to central bank officials that the credit control measures have adversely affected the government’s tax income and small and medium-sized property developers, with limited positive effects. Housing prices have been climbing since 2016, even when the central bank imposed its first set of control measures in 2020, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋) said. “Since the second half of
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