MANAGEMENT
TFCC chair quitting
Minister of Finance Chang Sheng-ford (張盛和) yesterday confirmed that Taipei Financial Center Corp (TFCC, 台北金融大樓) chairwoman Christina Sung (宋文琪) had expressed her intention to leave her post as soon as Dec. 6 due to personal reasons. Chang said the government is looking for a suitable candidate to take over management of Taipei 101. Candidates must be skilled in foreign languages, public relations and management, he said, adding that such a candidate is hard to find.
ELECTRONICS
Yageo expects slowdown
Yageo Corp (國巨), the nation’s largest passive components manufacturer, yesterday said it expects demand this quarter to be affected by a seasonal slowdown. The company reported a 70 percent sequential increase in net income to NT$1.23 billion (US$37.7 million), or NT$1.86 per share, last quarter. Yageo attributed the rise to non-operating gains of NT$623 million — including an investment gain of NT$60 million, interest income of NT$53 million and foreign exchange gains of NT$218 million. Cumulative net income in the first three quarters of the year reached NT$2.89 billion, or earnings per share of NT$4.32, Yageo said.
Gaming
X-Legend back in black
Online game publisher X-Legend Entertainment Co (傳奇網路) yesterday said it swung into profit last quarter, bolstered by robust sales of new products and better operating expense control. Net income was NT$48 million last quarter, or earnings per share of NT$0.43, the company said. That compares with a net loss per share of NT$0.51 in the second quarter. In the first 10 months of the year, revenue totaled N$97.61 billion, down 17 percent year-on-year, the company said.
MANUFACTURING
St Shine makes forex gains
Contact lens supplier St Shine Optical Co (精華光學) on Tuesday reported a third-quarter profit of NT$471 million, up 41.7 percent year-on-year, due to better-than-expected foreign exchange gains of NT$130 million. Earnings per share were NT$9.35 last quarter, while gross margin recovered to 36.4 percent and operating margin increased to 27.5 percent on the back of a rising utilization rate and stronger order flow from Japan and Taiwan.Daiwa Capital Markets in a client note forecast that St Shine’s sales would grow 7.4 percent year-on-year this year, while net profit would drop 10.7 percent mainly due to a shrinking gross margin.
ELECTRONICS
HTC sales improve slightly
HTC Corp (宏達電) yesterday reported sales of NT$8.95 billion (US$274.62 million) for last month, down 43.2 percent from last year’s NT$15.75 billion, but up 26.05 percent from NT$7.1 billion in the prior month, the company said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. HTC on Friday last week said its sales and earnings for this quarter would show incremental improvement from last quarter, thanks to the launch of its latest flagship model and an ongoing financial restructuring.
ELECTRONICS
Acer predicts subsidy boost
Acer Inc (宏碁) is optimistic that its smartphone sales in Taiwan would rise at least 25 percent to more than 100,000 units next year from this year’s 80,000, Acer Taiwan operations president Towny Huang (黃鐘鋒) said yesterday. The company’s smartphone business is expected to benefit from the government’s recent announcement of a subsidy for consumers upgrading from 2G phones to 4G smartphones. About 1 million people still use 2G phones in the nation, Huang said.
END TO SPECULATION: The hotel’s management contract has been extended, despite reports that it wanted to end its alliance with Hyatt Hotels over a deal with Riant Capital Singapore-based Hong Leong Hotel Development Ltd (豐隆大飯店股份) yesterday said it has extended a management contract to ensure the continued presence of the Grand Hyatt brand in Taipei, ending rumors that the two sides were parting ways. “We are pleased Hyatt is able to come to terms on the extension of the management contract of Grand Hyatt Taipei,” said Kwek Leng Beng (郭令明), executive chairman of City Developments Ltd (城市發展) and Millennium & Copthorne Hotels Ltd (千禧國敦酒店). Hong Leong Hotel Development is a subsidiary of Millennium, and both fall under the Hong Leong Group (豐隆集團). The Grand Hyatt Taipei (台北君悅大飯店), owned and built by
’WHITE BOX’: The open platform would give local firms access to Cisco’s cloud-based mobile network to develop 5G telecom equipment and tap into the global market The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) yesterday introduced a new 5G “open lab” in collaboration with US-based information technology and networking giant Cisco Systems Inc to address the rapidly growing “white box” 5G networking equipment market. The open lab will be a platform where Taiwanese manufacturers can access Cisco’s cloud-based mobile network to develop their own 5G telecom equipment, such as small-cell base stations, network switches, modems and Internet of things (IoT) devices, a ministry statement said. The open platform would allow Taiwanese manufacturers to tap into the lucrative 5G telecom equipment market, which was previously monopolized by Nokia Oyj, Ericsson AB
Nintendo Co is raising its target for Switch production to about 25 million units this fiscal year, people familiar with the matter said, as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic keeps lifting demand and component shortages ease. The Kyoto, Japan-based company, which in April hiked orders to 22 million units by March next year, is asking partners to tack on another few million units, said the people, who did not want to be identified discussing internal goals. Assembly partners plan to work at maximum capacity through December. The new production target suggests that Nintendo is likely to outperform its Switch sales forecast of 19 million
‘BIG LOSS’: This year might see the last generation of Huawei’s Kirin chips, as their production would stop next month because they are made using US technology Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies Co (華為) is running out of processor chips to make smartphones due to US sanctions and would be forced to stop production of its own most advanced chips, a company executive has said, in a sign of growing damage to Huawei’s business from US pressure. Huawei, one of the biggest producers of smartphones and network equipment, is at the center of US-Chinese tension over technology and security. Washington last year cut off Huawei’s access to US components and technology, and those penalties were tightened in May, when the White House barred vendors worldwide from using US
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