The National Development Fund (NDF, 國發基金) will establish a joint-venture capital fund with Daiwa SB Investments Ltd to invest in the biotechnology industry, Council for Economic Planning and Development Minister Yiin Chii-ming (尹啟銘) said yesterday.
The joint venture will set up a fund of between US$100 million and US$150 million, with the NDF’s investment accounting for 20 percent to 30 percent of the total, Yiin said.
He did not give a timetable for the fund’s establishment.
Yiin visited several Japanese companies — including Daiwa Securities Group Inc, Hitachi Ltd and Sony Corp — last week to seek investment in their operations in Taiwan.
“The trip was for visiting several old friends,” Yiin told reporters yesterday, reflecting his long-term good relationship with the Japanese firms.
Hitachi, Japan’s second-largest electronics manufacturer, is set to spend ￥6.3 trillion (US$80 billion) on components purchases this year, and should send out orders to Taiwanese suppliers by the end of this year.
Yiin said the council would help Hitachi representatives during their trip to Taiwan in the hope of facilitating more cooperation between the Japanese firm and Taiwanese electronics suppliers.
Yiin said Sony had also expressed an interest in building and managing a small-scale dome in Taiwan as a showcase arena, while Rakuten Inc — which has launched a joint venture with President Chain Store Corp (統一超商) — is set to increase its investment in Taiwan.
In related news, Formosa International Hotels Corp (晶華國際酒店集團) — the nation’s largest listed hotel operator which owns the Regent brand — has signed a long-term strategic alliance agreement with Rezidor Hotel Group AB, one of the fastest growing hotel groups worldwide.
The company said in a statement that Rezidor would exclusively develop and operate Regent hotels in Russia, the Baltics, the Middle East and Africa, and jointly develop and operate with the company new Regent hotels in the rest of Europe.
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Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and Episil Technologies Inc (漢磊) yesterday announced plans to jointly build an 8-inch fab to produce silicon carbide (SiC) chips through an equity acquisition deal. SiC chips offer higher efficiency and lower energy loss than pure silicon chips, and they are able to operate at higher temperatures. They have become crucial to the development of electric vehicles, artificial intelligence data centers, green energy storage and industrial devices. Vanguard, a contract chipmaker focused on making power management chips and driver ICs for displays, is to acquire a 13 percent stake in Episil for NT$2.48 billion (US$77.1 million).
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