Speculation fuels AUO rally
Shares of AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), the nation’s No. 2 LCD panel supplier, rallied 2.74 percent yesterday to close at NT$33.80 amid speculation that it could receive the go-ahead from the government to begin its US$3 billion plan to build a new plant in China next month at the earliest.
The Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported yesterday that the Ministry of Economic Affairs was set to review AU Optronics’ Chinese investment proposal by the end of this month after the panel maker submitted more information on the investment plan.
However, Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Huang Chung-chiou (黃重球) told the Taipei Times yesterday that “no timetable has been set for the review, though AU Optronics has already done all the paper work.”
Chimei Innolux plans buyback
Chimei Innolux Corp’s (奇美電子) board approved a plan to buy back and cancel 732 million preferred shares, the Miaoli-based panel maker said in a stock exchange filing yesterday.
The proposal still needs to be approved by shareholders at a meeting on June 29.
The board also approved a plan to sell as many as 700 million new shares via a private placement or issuance of global depositary receipts. The proceeds will be used to fund expansion, buy raw materials or boost working capital, the company said.
Ta Chong share cut approved
Ta Chong Bank Ltd (大眾銀行) said on Wednesday its board had approved plans to cancel 20 percent of its shares to improve its capital structure and make up for accumulated losses.
The Taipei-based lender plans to sell as many as 3.6 billion common shares in a private placement or by issuing global depositary receipts, it said in a stock exchange filing.
The plans need shareholders’ approval at a meeting to be held on June 29, the bank said.
Only 10% have filed taxes: poll
Nearly 90 percent of taxpayers will not file income taxes until after the middle of this month, the latest survey by 1111 Job Bank showed yesterday.
The online human resources agency cited data provided by the Ministry of Finance, saying that as of Monday, only 12 percent of taxpayers, or 655,000 people, had completed filing income taxes.
“Although online tax filing services have substantially increased the convenience of filing income taxes, those polled rated convenience of such services only 49 points [out of 100],” the report said.
Job seekers swarm Taisugar
The state-run Taiwan Sugar Corp (Taisugar, 台糖) said it received more than 2,500 applications for 58 positions that it had advertised as part of a government job creation program.
Taisugar said it plans to hire only 2.32 percent of the applicants, who will be assigned to its administrative, ethics, finance, information, land development and civil engineering departments at branches located mostly in central and southern Taiwan.
NT dollar advances 0.4%
The New Taiwan dollar pared gains in late trading on speculation the central bank intervened to check appreciation that could hurt exports.
The NT dollar appreciated 0.4 percent to close at NT$31.778 against its US counterpart, according to Taipei Forex Inc. The currency has climbed 0.8 percent this year as foreign investors plowed US$2.1 billion into local equities.
The monetary authority sold the local currency in the final minutes of trading for a third day, according to two traders familiar with the matter who declined to be identified.
Elon Musk’s lieutenants have reached out to chip industry suppliers, including Applied Materials Inc, Tokyo Electron Ltd and Lam Research Corp, for his envisioned Terafab, early steps in an audacious and likely arduous attempt to break into the production of cutting-edge chips. Staff working for the joint venture between Tesla Inc and Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) have sought price quotes and delivery times for an array of chipmaking gear, people familiar with the matter said. In past weeks, they’ve contacted makers of photomasks, substrates, etchers, depositors, cleaning devices, testers and other tools, according to the people, who asked not to
Taiwan is attracting a growing number of foreign jobseekers as companies increasingly recruit overseas talent to ease labor shortages and expand global reach, recruitment platform 104 Job Bank (104人力銀行) said yesterday. More than 40,000 foreign nationals searched for jobs in Taiwan through the platform last year, a 28 percent increase from a year earlier, the company said. Malaysians accounted for the largest share of overseas jobseekers at 12.2 percent, followed by Indonesians at 11.9 percent and Vietnamese at 10.8 percent. Indonesian applicants surged more than 50 percent year-on-year, while Vietnamese jobseekers rose by more than 30 percent. Applicants from the
JET JUICE: The war on Iran’s secondary effects have seen fuel prices skyrocket, knocking flight schedules down to earth in return as airlines struggle with costs Airline passengers should brace for more irritation in the next few months as carriers worldwide cancel flights and ground planes to cope with stratospheric increases in jet-fuel prices. Dutch flag carrier KLM is the latest company to cut its schedule, saying on Thursday that it would scrap 80 return flights at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport in the coming month. That puts it in the same league as United Airlines Holdings Inc, Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd, which have all pruned itineraries to mitigate costs. Global capacity for next month has been reduced by about 3 percentage points, with all
NO SHORTCUTS: Asked about Elon Musk’s Terafab initiative, TSMC CEO C.C. Wei said it takes two to three years to build a fab and another one to two to ramp it up Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday raised its revenue growth forecast for this year to above 30 percent, up from the 25 percent it estimated three months earlier, citing extremely robust artificial intelligence (AI)-related chip demand. “Our customers and customers’ customers, who are mainly cloud service providers, continue to send us very positive signals and outlook,” TSMC chairman and CEO C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at an earnings conference. The company also hiked its capital expenditure for this year toward the higher end of its forecast, or US$56 billion, as it aims to step up advanced chip capacity expansions, such as
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