FINANCE
COTA acquisition fails
Local financial service provider Waterland Financial Holdings Co (國票金控) yesterday said that its intention to acquire COTA Commercial Bank (三信銀行) has failed. Waterland was unable to purchase the required 256 million shares — or 51 percent share — of COTA, at NT$17.8 per share, during the period between June 29 and yesterday. Waterland only bought 83 million shares, it said in a statement filed with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Waterland’s hostile acquisition failed as it faced opposition from COTA. The bank’s board rejected the acquisition after a meeting on July 1.
STEELMAKERS
China Steel profit plunges
China Steel Corp (中鋼), the nation’s biggest steelmaker, yesterday reported NT$224 million (US$6.92 million) in pre-tax profit for last month, plunging 84 percent from a month earlier as prices drifted into a non-stop downward spiral on oversupply. In June, China Steel made NT$1.44 billion in pre-tax profit. Revenue slid 0.3 percent to NT$23.94 billion last month, compared with NT$24.02 billion in June, according to a company statement. Meanwhile, shipments jumped 17 percent to 922.89 tonnes last month, from 788.9 tonnes in June. In the first seven months, the steelmaker’s pre-tax profit stood at NT$10.83 billion.
PANEL MAKERS
Global shipments down
Global TV panel shipments dropped 1 percent last month to 22.31 million units from 22.6 million in June due to sluggish TV demand, with local panel makers suffering a faster decline, market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said in a report released yesterday. Taiwan’s two biggest LCD panel makers, Innolux Corp (群創) and AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), saw their TV panel shipments fall 2 percent and 18 percent respectively, capped by capacities. The Taipei-based researcher expected TV panel shipments to be flat in the current quarter from last quarter, while shipments are expected to decrease 10 percent next quarter on persistent weak demand and piling inventory from China.
AVIATION
CAL dividend approved
China Airlines (CAL, 華航), the nation’s biggest airliner, yesterday said that its board has approved a cash dividend totaling NT$1.66 billion, after selling the company’s 14 percent stake in Abacus International Pte Ltd. CAL last week reported net income of NT$1.12 billion, or NT$0.20 per share, for last quarter, lower than the NT$1.85 billion and NT$0.35 recorded in the first quarter. Earnings in the first half were tallied at NT$2.97 billion or NT$0.55 per share, improving markedly over losses of NT$0.72 per share recorded during the same period last year.
STOCK MARKET
Pre-tax profits soar
Taiwan-listed companies, excluding financial holdings firms, reported an overall 18.43 percent average increase in pre-tax profits for the first half of 2015 thanks to good results in the semiconductor, electronics and plastics sectors, the Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp (TWSE) said on Monday. The companies’ pre-tax profits totaled a combined NT$902.4 billion (US$27.66 billion) in the first six months of 2015, compared with NT$762 billion a year earlier. Their January-June revenue grew by 0.98 percent year-on-year to NT$12.35 trillion, the TWSE said in a statement. Among the 785 companies listed in Taiwan, 596 reported profits in the first half of this year.
DOLLAR CHALLENGE: BRICS countries’ growing share of global GDP threatens the US dollar’s dominance, which some member states seek to displace for world trade US president-elect Donald Trump on Saturday threatened 100 percent tariffs against a bloc of nine nations if they act to undermine the US dollar. His threat was directed at countries in the so-called BRICS alliance, which consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. Turkey, Azerbaijan and Malaysia have applied to become members and several other countries have expressed interest in joining. While the US dollar is by far the most-used currency in global business and has survived past challenges to its preeminence, members of the alliance and other developing nations say they are fed
LIMITED MEASURES: The proposed restrictions on Chinese chip exports are weaker than previously considered, following lobbying by major US firms, sources said US President Joe Biden’s administration is weighing additional curbs on sales of semiconductor equipment and artificial intelligence (AI) memory chips to China that would escalate the US crackdown on Beijing’s tech ambitions, but stop short of some stricter measures previously considered, said sources familiar with the matter. The restrictions could be unveiled as soon as next week, said the sources, who emphasized that the timing and contours of the rules have changed several times, and that nothing is final until they are published. The measures follow months of deliberations by US officials, negotiations with allies in Japan and the Netherlands, and
Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) yesterday said it expects any impact of new tariffs from US president-elect Donald Trump to hit the company less than its rivals, citing its global manufacturing footprint. Young Liu (劉揚偉), chairman of the contract manufacturer and key Apple Inc supplier, told reporters after a forum in Taipei that it saw the primary impact of any fresh tariffs falling on its clients because its business model is based on contract manufacturing. “Clients may decide to shift production locations, but looking at Foxconn’s global footprint, we are ahead. As a result, the impact on us is likely smaller compared to
TECH COMPETITION: The US restricted sales of two dozen types of manufacturing equipment and three software tools, and blacklisted 140 more Chinese entities US President Joe Biden’s administration unveiled new restrictions on China’s access to vital components for chips and artificial intelligence (AI), escalating a campaign to contain Beijing’s technological ambitions. The US Department of Commerce slapped additional curbs on the sale of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and chipmaking gear, including that produced by US firms at foreign facilities. It also blacklisted 140 more Chinese entities that it accused of acting on Beijing’s behalf, although it did not name them in an initial statement. Full details on the new sanctions and Entity List additions were to be published later yesterday, a US official said. The US “will
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