Treasury bonds sold
The government sold NT$35 billion (US$1.1 billion) of 10-year Treasury bonds at a yield of 1.288 percent at auction yesterday, the central bank said.
The sale of the securities attracted bids for 1.45 times the amount on offer, the central bank said in a statement. The government last sold 10-year debt in June at a yield of 1.475 percent. That offer had a bid-to-cover ratio of 1.26 times.
The securities industry was the biggest buyer at the auction, taking 52 percent of the total issuance, followed by the banking sector, which took 34.7 percent.
The central bank will end a run of five interest-rate increases at a quarterly policy review tomorrow, according to 12 of 15 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The rest predict a 0.125 percentage point rise to 2 percent.
Company buys forwards
CS Aluminium Corp (中鋼鋁業) bought US$37 million and 3.55 million euro of forward contracts on Monday, parent company China Steel Corp (中鋼) said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.
To hedge its foreign exchange risks, the company said the US dollar forwards will carry forward rates of NT$28.420 to NT$30.533 to the US dollar and will expire by June 21, 2015.
The euro forwards will carry forward rates of NT$39.300 to NT$40.000 to the euro and will expire by Nov. 10, 2013, it said.
Tablet data plan launched
Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信) yesterday launched a NT$199 (US$6.50) monthly data plan that targets tablet computer users.
Consumers who subscribe to this plan can use Far EasTone’s 15,000 “hot spots” around the country for Wi-Fi connection, with free 3G data traffic of 1 gigabyte per month, the company said.
Far EasTone’s Wi-Fi hotspots will increase to 25,000 by the end of the year. Currently the company has about 40,000 subscribers to its tablet data plan, and the company expects the number to grow by 20 percent month-on-month from next month to December, reaching 70,000 by the end of this year.
A10 sets up R&D center
A10 Networks Inc, a US company which makes networking and security products, is investing NT$100 million in setting up its fourth global research and development (R&D) center in Taiwan.
The center, located at Nangang Software Park in Taipei, will focus on cloud computing technology and will produce related bandwidth management equipment, according to the Chinese-language Economic Daily News.
A10 has three other R&D centers located in Silicon Valley, China and India. Its main clients include Alibaba Group (阿里巴巴集團), NTT DoCoMo Inc, Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) and Gamania Digital Entertainment Co (遊戲橘子).
EnTie Bank to auction stake
EnTie Commercial Bank (安泰銀行) yesterday announced a plan to auction its stake in a building in downtown Taipei to boost earnings.
The building, located near Da-an Forest Park and measuring 1,331 ping (4,400m2) in floor space, is set at a floor price of NT$1.01 billion (US$33.16 million), the bank said in a statement.
Bidding is slated for Oct. 7 at the bank’s office in Neihu, the statement said.
Starting today, the lender’s offshore banking unit will provide customers with yuan conversions, remittances and other services, the statement added.
NT dollar gains ground
The New Taiwan dollar rose against the US dollar yesterday, adding NT$0.116 to close at NT$30.456.
Turnover totaled US$866 million during the trading session.
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