TransAsia Airways Corp (復興航空) shares yesterday shed the daily maximum in Taipei trading — with further short-term effects on company business and stock price expected — after one of its aircraft crashed into the Keelung River in the capital earlier in the day.
TransAsia shares stayed flat in the early session, but lost value later, as news of the late morning crash of TransAsia Airways Flight GE235 affected investors’ confidence.
It was the second fatal incident involving the carrier in less than eight months, and is expected to harm its business and stock price more than the crash on Penghu on Aug. 23 last year, analysts said.
“Through the media’s reporting and the videos and photographs taken by eyewitnesses, the harm to TransAsia’s operations and reputation will be expanded,” a Capital Securities Corp (群益金鼎證券) official who refused to be named told reporters during a lunch gathering.
TransAsia chief executive Peter Chen (陳欣德), who led company officials in apologizing to the families of the passengers and the public yesterday afternoon, said the accident would not result in significant effects on the company, citing liability insurance to help cover losses and expected compensation to families.
Even though most compensation is set to be covered by aviation insurance, an expected rise in insurance fees over the next few years might increase the carrier’s costs, with its peers expected to pay higher insurance fees as well, analysts said.
The airline’s shares closed at NT$12.15 yesterday, the lowest level for more than two months, Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) data showed.
Data offered by the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) showed that TransAsia, which focuses on regional passenger flights, has purchased full aviation insurance from eight local insurers, led by Cathay Century Insurance Co (國泰產險).
Cathay Century has established an emergency response team for the accident and launched procedures for addressing further claims.
Meanwhile, the French-made turboprop ATR 72-600 that crashed yesterday is of the same series as the aircraft in the Penghu incident last year, an ATR 72-500, raising the public’s concerns over the type.
Chen said the company would continue replacing its ATR 72-500 turboprops with ATR 72-600 aircraft.
TransAsia operates five ATR 72-600 aircraft, while aiming to raise the number to 10 by the end of this year, company records showed.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in
RSS