RETAIL
Fraspens planning AIM float
Chinese outdoor clothing brand Fraspens was set to announce yesterday its intention to float on London’s Alternate Investment Market (AIM), seeking to raise about ￡4 million (US$6.84 million), the Telegraph reported yesterday. The newspaper said Fraspens’ market value would rise to about ￡40 million on its flotation on AIM. Fraspens shares are expected to start trading next month, the report said. According to Euromonitor International, Fraspens is the third-biggest local outdoor clothing brand in China in terms of revenue. Fraspens could not be contacted for comment outside of normal business hours.
CONGLOMERATES
Philips Q2 profit slid 23%
Dutch electronics giant Philips NV yesterday reported a 23 percent slump in second-quarter net profit to 243 million euros (US$329 million). The Dutch giant said in a statement sales also dropped 5.4 percent to 5.3 billion euros. The group blamed weak performance by its new strategic activities in healthcare equipment for the slump in profits. Last year, Philips announced the sale of its lifestyle entertainment branch, which makes stereos and DVD players, after selling its troubled TV-making arm in 2012.
MACROECONOMICS
US hiring, wages up: NABE
Rising sales helped boost hiring and wages at US businesses in the second quarter, and companies are optimistic that the trends will continue this fall, a new survey by the National Association for Business Economics (NABE) showed. Fifty-seven percent of the 85 respondents to the quarterly survey said sales at their companies rose in the April-June period. Respondents also said the outlook for the July-October period is strong, with 59 percent of respondents expecting sales to increase during the third quarter. As sales picked up, so did hiring. Thirty-six percent of companies said they hired more workers during the second quarter, while the employment outlook was steady, with 37 percent of respondents expecting their companies to hire more workers in the July-October period.
ENERGY
Tullow shuts North Sea well
Oil and gas producer Tullow Oil PLC said it had plugged and abandoned a well in the Norwegian North Sea after it failed to find any hydrocarbons. The company said it did not encounter hydrocarbons in the Lupus exploration well, 35km southeast of the Oseberg South field in the North Sea. It was the first well in production license PL 507, Tullow said yesterday. Tullow reported a US$415 million pretax write-off in net exploration in the first half of the year due to dry holes drilled in Mauritania, Ethiopia and Norway over the past six months and various license cancellations.
METALS
Amplats mulls mine sale
Anglo American Platinum Ltd (Amplats), the world’s largest producer of the metal, said it may sell some mines after first-half profit dropped 88 percent because a five-month strike in South Africa disrupted mining. Amplats, as the Johannesburg-based unit of Anglo American PLC is known, is putting four mines and possibly two joint ventures up for sale, it said in a statement yesterday. It will retain the Mogalakwena open-cast operation, the company’s largest, three other mining assets and four stakes in joint ventures. Earnings per share excluding one-time items fell to 0.60 rand (US$0.06) in the six months, from 5.14 rand a year earlier, Amplats said.
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said second-quarter revenue is expected to surpass the first quarter, which rose 30 percent year-on-year to NT$118.92 billion (US$3.71 billion). Revenue this quarter is likely to grow, as US clients have front-loaded orders ahead of US President Donald Trump’s planned tariffs on Taiwanese goods, Delta chairman Ping Cheng (鄭平) said at an earnings conference in Taipei, referring to the 90-day pause in tariff implementation Trump announced on April 9. While situations in the third and fourth quarters remain unclear, “We will not halt our long-term deployments and do not plan to
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
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