STOCKS
Listed firms’ 2014 sales rise
The companies listed on the nation’s main bourse saw their combined sales for last month increase from November on a consolidated basis, but post an annual decline, tallies released yesterday showed. The aggregate sales of the 810 companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange totaled NT$2.7 trillion (US$84.8 billion) last month, up 4.81 percent from the previous month, but 0.7 percent lower year-on-year. For the whole of last year, aggregate sales for all of the nation’s listed companies amounted to NT$28.39 trillion, up 5.36 percent from 2013. The increase was driven mainly by firms in the semiconductor and automobile industries, as well as electronics distributors. Among them, 521 businesses saw their total revenue rise annually, while 292 firms reported declining sales, the stock exchange said.
INSURANCE
Web boosts non-life insurers
The nation’s non-life insurance sector received NT$13.51 million in premiums through online channels last year, according to data released by the Financial Supervisory Commission yesterday. Four non-life insurers that the commission has allowed to operate online insurance shopping services received a total of 13,412 cases online as of the end of last year, led by motorcycle insurance policies, the data showed. Meanwhile, four life insurers that the commission also approved to operate online shops got 393 cases via the Internet over the same period, with premiums totaling NT$88,575, the data showed.
COMPUTERS
Acer founder happy with CEO
Acer Inc (宏碁) founder and former chairman Stan Shih (施振榮) yesterday said he is satisfied with chief executive officer Jason Chen (陳俊聖), even though the computer manufacturer’s annual revenue last year declined 8.43 percent from the previous year to an eight-year low of NT$329.84 billion. Chen took the post in January last year. Shih said the company is taking the right steps in transforming itself and that he sees its falling annual revenue as a corporate strategy, since Acer “must earn money first and hold steady before making its next move.” Shih made the remarks on the sidelines of the cross-Taiwan Strait Mobile Internet Conference in Taipei.
AIRLINES
FAT denies ‘Next’ claim
FAT Taiwan Inc (遠東航空) on Monday denied a report that chairman Chang Kang-wei (張綱維) embezzled company assets, adding that it is on track to complete its restructuring plan after the Lunar New Year holiday. The airline issued the denial after the Chinese-language Next Magazine last week reported that Chang took advantage of the company by earning unreasonable premiums from the leasing of two aircraft. Chang, who holds 99.97 percent of the carrier, denied the magazine’s allegation and said the company would sue the publication for slander.
GAMES
Soft-World sales hit record
Soft-World International Corp (智冠科技) last week reported its highest-ever annual sales, after last year’s figure came in at NT$15.03 billion, rising 36.4 percent from 2013. The nation’s top game developer by sales attributed the boom to the popularity of its handset-based games, as well as its growing “MyCard” game credit card business. Meanwhile, online game publishers Gamania Digital Entertainment Co (遊戲橘子) and X-Legend Entertainment Co (傳奇網路) also reported record-high sales for last year, at NT$9.09 billion and NT$1.47 billion respectively.
FALLING BEHIND: Samsung shares have declined more than 20 percent this year, as the world’s largest chipmaker struggles in key markets and plays catch-up to rival SK Hynix Samsung Electronics Co is laying off workers in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand as part of a plan to reduce its global headcount by thousands of jobs, sources familiar with the situation said. The layoffs could affect about 10 percent of its workforces in those markets, although the numbers for each subsidiary might vary, said one of the sources, who asked not to be named because the matter is private. Job cuts are planned for other overseas subsidiaries and could reach 10 percent in certain markets, the source said. The South Korean company has about 147,000 in staff overseas, more than half
Taipei is today suspending its US$2.5 trillion stock market as Super Typhoon Krathon approaches Taiwan with strong winds and heavy rain. The nation is not conducting securities, currency or fixed-income trading, statements from its stock and currency exchanges said. Yesterday, schools and offices were closed in several cities and counties in southern and eastern Taiwan, including in the key industrial port city of Kaohsiung. Taiwan, which started canceling flights, ship sailings and some train services earlier this week, has wind and rain advisories in place for much of the island. It regularly experiences typhoons, and in July shut offices and schools as
An Indian factory producing iPhone components resumed work yesterday after a fire that halted production — the third blaze to disrupt Apple Inc’s local supply chain since the start of last year. Local industrial behemoth Tata Group’s plant in Tamil Nadu, which was shut down by the unexplained fire on Saturday, is a key linchpin of Apple’s nascent supply chain in the country. A spokesperson for subsidiary Tata Electronics Pvt yesterday said that the company would restart work in “many areas of the facility today.” “We’ve been working diligently since Saturday to support our team and to identify the cause of the fire,”
TECH PARTNERSHIP: The deal with Arizona-based Amkor would provide TSMC with advanced packing and test capacities, a requirement to serve US customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is collaborating with Amkor Technology Inc to provide local advanced packaging and test capacities in Arizona to address customer requirements for geographical flexibility in chip manufacturing. As part of the agreement, TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, would contract turnkey advanced packaging and test services from Amkor at their planned facility in Peoria, Arizona, a joint statement released yesterday said. TSMC would leverage these services to support its customers, particularly those using TSMC’s advanced wafer fabrication facilities in Phoenix, Arizona, it said. The companies would jointly define the specific packaging technologies, such as TSMC’s Integrated
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