STOCKS
HTC shares surge to limit
HTC Corp (宏達電) shares surged by the daily maximum of 10 percent to close at NT$44.35 in Taipei trading yesterday, after the company announced a shares buyback program on Monday night. After the market close, investors had still placed orders for an additional 9.59 million HTC shares, indicating further purchases are possible. HTC yesterday began to buy back 50 million of its shares, or 6 percent of outstanding shares, at between NT$35 and NT$60 per share on the open market, according to the company. HTC plans to spend up to US$60 million in the buyback scheme, which is to run through the next two months until Oct. 24, and the company will cancel those shares after completing the repurchase, it said.
STOCKS
Goldsun approves buy-back
Taiwan Goldsun Building Materials Co (國產建材) yesterday said its board approved a plan to buy back 100 million shares, or 6.58 percent of its outstanding shares, on the open market in an attempt to stabilize the company’s share price. The buy-back scheme is to begin today and run through Oct. 23, Goldsun Building said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The company plans to repurchase its shares at between NT$6 and NT$10 per share. Its shares have dropped 33.67 percent so far this year and closed at NT$7.33 in Taipei trading yesterday.
MACROECONOMICS
Inter-bank rate lowered
The central bank yesterday lowered the overnight interbank rate to 0.32 percent, from 0.37 percent, as the market remains worried about the economic slowdown in China. The overnight rate is the price paid for one-day loans among banks that define the short end of the yield curve. The central bank has guided the rate lower in recent weeks after it stayed unchanged at 0.388 percent for three years, as the monetary authority wants to reduce shortterm financing costs for banks, thus lowering local businesses’ financing costs while raising the market’s liquidity.
TECHNOLOGY
Inventec, Siemens to link up
Contract PC maker Inventec Corp (英業達) on Monday signed a letter of intent with Siemens PLM Software, a subsidiary of Siemens AG, in a bid to cash in on a global push into upgrading manufacturing operations. Under the terms of the agreement, Siemens PLM Software is to allow its solutions such as Web-based intelligent manufacturing systems to be used in Inventec’s factories, making Inventec a benchmark of Siemens PLM Software’s industrial cooperation in Taiwan, Inventec said in a statement. The agreement refelcts a global push into the “Industry 4.0” era, according to Siemens.
CENTRAL BANKS
Perng Fai-nan praised
Central bank Governor Perng Fai-nan (彭淮南) was named one of the world’s nine best central bankers this year by Global Finance magazine on Monday and given an “A” grade for the 11th year in a row. It was the 12th “A” the 76-year-old central banker has received during his time as governor of the central bank from 1998 to the present, with his first “A” coming in 2000. Other central bank chiefs given an “A” in this year’s Global Finance ranking were the heads of central banks in the Czech Republic, the EU, India, Israel, Malaysia, Philippines, Paraguay and Peru, according to the report published on Monday.
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
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
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
FACTORY SHIFT: While Taiwan produces most of the world’s AI servers, firms are under pressure to move manufacturing amid geopolitical tensions Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) started building artificial intelligence (AI) servers in India’s south, the latest boon for the rapidly growing country’s push to become a high-tech powerhouse. The company yesterday said it has started making the large, powerful computers in Pondicherry, southeastern India, moving beyond products such as laptops and smartphones. The Chinese company would also build out its facilities in the Bangalore region, including a research lab with a focus on AI. Lenovo’s plans mark another win for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who tries to attract more technology investment into the country. While India’s tense relationship with China has suffered setbacks
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