TELECOMS
Vee Time to drop WiMAX
Vee Time Corp (威達雲端) plans to terminate its WiMAX business due to massive losses, the company said yesterday. It said it was considering selling its WiMAX assets to recover some losses, after reporting NT$1.08 billion (US$35.05 million) in losses last year. As of the end of last quarter, Vee Time had accumulated 460,000 subscribers. The company’s latest announcement comes as its WiMAX license is set to expire at the end of this year. The National Communications Commission is set to auction the spectrum used by local WiMAX operators in the fourth quarter of this year. The WiMAX operator’s sales for last month declined 30.84 percent from a year earlier to NT$38.36 million.
CHIPMAKERS
UMC raises US$600m
United Microelectronics Co (UMC, 聯電) has raised US$600 million by issuing convertible bonds overseas, as the chipmaker plans to use the proceeds to purchase manufacturing equipment. The company yesterday said in a statement that the bonds, traded on Singapore exchange, would be converted into common shares at NT$17.5 per share, when they mature on May 18, 2020. That represents a 25 percent premium from UMC’s closing price of NT$14 on Monday.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Richtek income up on year
Richtek Technology Corp (立錡), the nation’s top analog integrated circuit designer, yesterday said its net income rose 10 percent from a year earlier to NT$377 million last quarter, although the figure dropped 3.8 percent from the previous quarter, with earnings per share of NT$2.55. The company said its sales guidance for this quarter is in a range from falling 2.1 percent sequentially to increasing 7.2 percent from last quarter’s NT$3.17 billion, which is better than many local semiconductor firms at the time when the sector is going through an inventory adjustment. Gross margin may range between 34 percent and 37 percent this quarter, compared with 36.8 percent last quarter, while operating margin is expected to stay between 12 percent and 15 percent, Richtek said.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Positive outlook for Win
Win Semiconductors Corp (穩懋半導體) yesterday said the company’s factory utilization rate for this quarter would be higher than last quarter’s 80 percent, with order visibility of about four to six weeks. As the April-to-June quarter is the peak season for cellular-related and WiFi-related products, Win’s revenue proportions from these products could climb quarter-on-quarter, driving up its second-quarter utilization rate to 90 percent, Capital Securities Corp (群益證券) said in a note. Win, which provides foundry services for gallium arsenide components used in handsets, forecast a double-digit percentage increase in revenue this quarter, compared with NT$2.81 billion last quarter.
AUTOMAKERS
Shares up on dividend news
Shares in Yulon Nissan Motor Co (裕隆日產) surged yesterday after the Nissan and Infiniti car distributor announced a cash dividend of NT$30 per share on last year’s earnings per share of NT$21.75. The cash dividend translates into a dividend yield of 9.29 percent based on Monday’s closing share price of NT$323. The company’s shares ended 5.88 percent higher yesterday at NT$342. In the first quarter of the year, Yulon Nissan reported net income of NT$1.03 billion, or NT$3.42 per share, with revenue of NT$9.04 billion, according to a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Monday.
HORMUZ ISSUE: The US president said he expected crude prices to drop at the end of the war, which he called a ‘minor excursion’ that could continue ‘for a little while’ The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait started reducing oil production, as the near-closure of the crucial Strait of Hormuz ripples through energy markets and affects global supply. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) is “managing offshore production levels to address storage requirements,” the company said in a statement, without giving details. Kuwait Petroleum Corp said it was lowering production at its oil fields and refineries after “Iranian threats against safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.” The war in the Middle East has all but closed Hormuz, the narrow waterway linking the Persian Gulf to the open seas,
RATIONING: The proposal would give the Trump administration ample leverage to negotiate investments in the US as it decides how many chips to give each country US officials are debating a new regulatory framework for exporting artificial intelligence (AI) chips and are considering requiring foreign nations to invest in US AI data centers or security guarantees as a condition for granting exports of 200,000 chips or more, according to a document seen by Reuters. The rules are not yet final and could change. They would be the first attempt to regulate the flow of AI chips to US allies and partners since US President Donald Trump’s administration said it rescinded its predecessor’s so-called AI diffusion rules. Those rules sought to keep a significant amount of AI
Apple Inc increased iPhone production in India by about 53 percent last year and now makes a quarter of its marquee devices there, reflecting the US company’s efforts to avoid tariffs on China. The company assembled about 55 million iPhones in India last year, up from 36 million a year earlier, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named because the numbers aren’t public. Apple makes about 220 million to 230 million iPhones a year globally, with India’s share of the total increasing rapidly. Apple has accelerated its expansion in the world’s most populous country in recent years, bolstered
A new worry has been rippling across the stock market lately: Entire businesses, not just their employees, might be thrown out of work. While most economists say fears of an artificial intelligence (AI) job apocalypse are overblown, seismic shifts have happened in the past after big tech breakthroughs. The IT revolution of the 1990s led to a surge in productivity that sped up the US economy for several years. It also rendered companies or even industries largely redundant — from travel agents and stockbrokers to classified advertising and newspapers, or video rental stores. Economists expect AI would deliver higher productivity,
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