Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (中華映管), the nation’s No. 3 maker of liquid-crystal-display (LCD) panels, yesterday said shareholders gave the go-ahead to raise NT$21 billion (US$650 million) via a private placement next year.
Shareholders approved the plan to issue bonds or 6 billion shares at up to NT$3.25 per share, the company said after a special shareholder’s meeting.
The company hopes to better its financial structure and fund operations and equipment purchases.
Shareholders also approved a board reshuffle, electing Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶電腦) president Ray Chen (陳瑞聰) as one of three new board members after Compal bought a 20 percent stake in the company via a private placement.
Chunghwa Picture chairman Lin Wei-shan (林蔚山) said the partnership with Compal would double or triple the company’s notebook panel shipments next year.
Chunghwa Picture said it had no plans to merge with any company, dismissing speculation that it was the acquisition target of Compal and rival AU Optronics Corp (友達光電).
Compal subscribed 2.8 billion common shares for NT$7 billion earlier this year, during which the panel maker raised NT$10 billion by selling 4 billion new common shares at NT$2.5 a share. Chunghwa Picture’s parent company Tatung Co (大同) subscribed the remaining 1.2 billion shares via subsidiaries.
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday said that its research institute has launched its first advanced artificial intelligence (AI) large language model (LLM) using traditional Chinese, with technology assistance from Nvidia Corp. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), said the LLM, FoxBrain, is expected to improve its data analysis capabilities for smart manufacturing, and electric vehicle and smart city development. An LLM is a type of AI trained on vast amounts of text data and uses deep learning techniques, particularly neural networks, to process and generate language. They are essential for building and improving AI-powered servers. Nvidia provided assistance
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STILL HOPEFUL: Delayed payment of NT$5.35 billion from an Indian server client sent its earnings plunging last year, but the firm expects a gradual pickup ahead Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), the world’s No. 5 PC vendor, yesterday reported an 87 percent slump in net profit for last year, dragged by a massive overdue payment from an Indian cloud service provider. The Indian customer has delayed payment totaling NT$5.35 billion (US$162.7 million), Asustek chief financial officer Nick Wu (吳長榮) told an online earnings conference. Asustek shipped servers to India between April and June last year. The customer told Asustek that it is launching multiple fundraising projects and expected to repay the debt in the short term, Wu said. The Indian customer accounted for less than 10 percent to Asustek’s
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