ECONOMY
Minister backs fund
Minister of Finance Chang Sheng-ford (張盛和) yesterday said he would suggest that the government allow the National Stabilization Fund to remain in the market into January next year, when the presidential elections are scheduled. Chang told the legislature’s Finance Committee that the presence of the state-run fund will help smooth any impact from external factors. The NT$500 billion (US$15.09 billion) fund was activated on Aug. 25 as local shares suffered heavy losses resulting from turmoil in global equity markets. The fund’s steering committee is to hold its regular meeting on Oct. 15 to review market performance during the period the fund has been active.
ELECTRONICS
Hon Hai seeks help: report
Apple Inc supplier Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) is planning to ask the iPhone maker to jointly invest funds to buy a stake in Sharp Corp’s LCD business, according to Japan’s Mainichi Shimbun. The newspaper said the Taiwanese suitor is expected to spend ￥200 billion (US$1.67 billion) to buy part of the LCD business, while mulling the possibility of having Apple as a partner in the buy out deal. Sharp is under rising pressure to find an investor for its flat-panel business after the Japanese company last week said its financial results in the current period would fall short of expectations. Hon Hai declined to comment on the report.
ENTERTAINMENT
XPEC gains shareholder nod
Game developer XPEC Entertainment Inc (樂陞科技) yesterday said shareholders approved a company plan to sell 28 million new common shares via private placement to raise NT$2 billion as part of the firm’s efforts to acquire China’s Xiamen ETombo Technology Ltd (廈門同步網路). XPEC Entertainment plans to collect another NT$3.3 billion via bond sales and bank loans to fund the NT$5.3 billion acquisition, aiming to expand its presence in the Chinese retail market. The deal was announced in October last year and gained regulatory approval from the Investment Commission in June.
STOCK MARKET
Deal prompts reshuffle
Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp on Tuesday announced that Taiwan Life Insurance Co (台壽保) on Friday will be removed from the FTSE TWSE Taiwan Mid-Cap 100 Index, as the company has been acquired by CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控), which is listed on the FTSE TWSE Taiwan 50 Index. The vacated spot on the Taiwan 100 index will be filled by Elite Material Co (台光電), one of the world’s leading printed circuit board suppliers, which specializing in copper clad laminate components and lamination production services. Elite Material Co fell 0.56 percent to NT$71.5 on Friday in Taipei trading.
TRADE
Talks miss exemption issue
Bureau of Foreign Trade Director-General Yang Jen-ni (楊珍妮) yesterday said the 11th round of formal negotiations over the cross-strait trade in goods agreement did not tackle the issue of the scope of Taiwan’s products to be exempted from Chinese tariffs or vice versa. Yang, who jointly led the team to Beijing, said the two sides did not go through every item of each industry during the meeting on Monday and Tuesday. Because Taipei and Beijing hope to complete the negotiations before the end of this year, they agreed to hold the next round of formal negotiation as soon as possible, Yang said.
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has approved a capital budget of US$31.28 billion for production expansion to meet long-term development needs during the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. The company’s board meeting yesterday approved the capital appropriation plan for purposes such as the installation of advanced technology capacity and fab construction, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement. At an earnings conference last month, TSMC forecast that its capital expenditure for this year would be at the higher end of the US$52 billion to US$56 billion range it forecast in January in response to robust demand for 5G, AI and
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