REAL ESTATE
Housing slump expected
The transaction volume for residential properties across Taiwan last year was likely to set a 13-year low due to extended weakness in the property market, H&B Realty Co (住商不動產) planning and research director Jessica Hsu (徐佳馨) said yesterday. With home sales remaining sluggish after the Nov. 29 nine-in-one elections, transactions for the whole year might register less than 320,000 units nationwide, the third-lowest level in decades, Hsu said, adding that 289,000 units changed hands in 1991 and 259,000 in 2001. Both Greater Kaohsiung and Greater Taichung saw home transactions decline by 10.99 percent and 5.66 percent respectively last month from November, while transactions in Taipei, New Taipei City and Greater Taoyuan gained 13.66 percent, 11.18 percent and 4.55 percent respectively, according to H&B tallies.
BANKING
Chang Hwa names president
State-run Chang Hwa Commercial Bank (彰化銀行) on Tuesday said its board had agreed to appoint executive vice president James Shih (施建安) as president, after a local banking conglomerate rejected the Ministry of Finance’s offer to name the candidate. The finance ministry on Dec. 10 named Chang Hwa president Chang Ming-daw (張明道) as chairman after the ministry beat the lender’s major shareholder, Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控), and gained control of the lender’s board.
LIFE INSURANCE
Taiwan Life’s Jou leaves
Taiwan Life Insurance Co (台灣人壽保險) on Tuesday said its board approved the resignation of acting president David Jou (周國端), which was to take effect today. Jou, who left China’s Taikang Life Insurance Co (泰康人壽) as chief financial officer in October, would remain a board director of Taiwan Life, a company statement said.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Arthritis drug in pipeline
Taiwan Liposome Co (台灣微脂體), a developer of generic drugs used to treat breast and ovarian cancer, on Tuesday said it had filed an investigational new drug application for TLC599 in Taiwan, a treatment it developed to counter arthritis, especially in small joints such as fingers. Taiwan Liposome said in a press release that if the Food and Drug Administration approves its application, the company would proceed with phase one and phase two clinical trials with about 40 subjects.
MANUFACTURING
Hon Hai wins patent suit
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Monday said that it has won a final ruling in a patent suit against Lotes Suzhou Co (得意精密電子蘇州). Hon Hai and its subsidiary, Foxconn (Kunshan) Computer Connector Co (富士康昆山電腦接插件), said Hon Hai received the final ruling from the Higher People’s Court of Jiangsu Province on Dec. 19, which upheld a ruling by the Nanjing Intermediate People’s Court that Lotes Suzhou infringed Hon Hai’s USB 3.0 patents.
BANKING
HSBC set to offer in China
HSBC Holdings PLC plans to sell the first asset-backed securities by a foreign bank in China as Beijing accelerates development of the market. The bank is to offer 1.35 billion yuan (US$217.5 million) of the notes on Jan. 15, according to a statement on the Chinabond Web site on Tuesday. Banks issued 267.7 billion yuan of notes backed by loans last year, compared with 15.8 billion yuan in 2013, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) listed the challenges of ensuring export control compliance by its customers, months after the company’s artificial intelligence (AI) silicon was found to have flowed to US-sanctioned Huawei Technologies Co (華為) via intermediaries. “TSMC’s role in the semiconductor supply chain inherently limits its visibility and information available to it regarding the downstream use or user of final products that incorporate semiconductors manufactured by it,” the Hsinchu-based company said in its latest annual report released on Friday. The world’s largest contract chipmaker said the constraint impedes its ability to prevent unintended end-uses of its semiconductors, as well
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
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