ELECTRONICS
Foxconn reports small fire
Foxconn Technology Group (富士康), also known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), yesterday said that a small fire at its plant in Zengzhou, China, caused no injuries and did not impact manufacturing operations. The company, which assembles Apple Inc’s iPhones, said that there was a small fire on the roof of one of the buildings at the Zhengzhou facility on Sunday night, which was brought under control by the fire department shortly after it was reported. The company’s shares yesterday rose 1.6 percent to NT$76 in Taipei trading.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Holtek net income up 1.9%
Holtek Semiconductor Inc (盛群半導體) yesterday posted a net income of NT$806 million (US$23.97 million) for last year, up 1.9 percent from NT$798.58 million in 2014. Earnings per share last year were NT$3.57, compared with NT$3.5 earnings per share the previous year, the company said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Combined revenues totaled NT$3.96 billion, an increase of 0.9 percent from NT$3.93 billion recorded in 2014, the firm said.
ONLINE COMMERCE
Jollywiz helping food firms
Jollywiz Digital Technology Co (樂利科技) yesterday announced it is cooperating with pineapple cake brand Sunny Hills (微熱山丘) and Lian Hwa Foods Co (聯華食品) by introducing the companies’ products to Chinese online site Tmall.com (天貓) ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays. Jollywiz, an e-commerce subsidiary of the online game publisher Gamania Digital Entertainment Co (遊戲橘子), said in a statement that it is confident that it could help Sunny Hills and Lian Hwa Foods boost their sales performance through its expertise in cross-border e-commerce services.
CHIPMAKERS
Powertech to issue shares
Powertech Technology Inc (力成) yesterday said that its board has approved a proposal to issue about 260 million new common shares to a memorychip subsidiary of China’s Tsinghua Unigroup Inc (清華紫光) for about NT$19.5 billion. The price is set at NT$75 per share, representing a premium of 12.61 percent from the stock’s closing price yesterday of NT$66.6. Tsinghua Unigroup will hold a 25 percent stake in Powertech after its memorychip arm, Tongfang Guoxin Electronics Co Ltd (同方國芯), receives the shares via a Tibetan investment arm.
INSURANCE
Chaoyang to present plan
Chaoyang Life Insurance Co (朝陽人壽) yesterday said it would propose a detailed financial improvement plan to its board on Thursday, which is expected to approve a N$5.05 billion capital increase program, including NT$3.5 billion in cash and NT$1.55 in real-estate assets. The company expects to raise its risk-based capital (RBC) ratio from less than 50 percent to more than 300 percent by March, it said in a statement. The RBC requirement establishes a minimum liquid reserve that protects a financial institution, its customers and the economy by ensuring that the firm has sufficient capital to sustain possible operating losses. The Financial Supervisory Commission dispatched officials to inspect -Chaoyang Life at the beginning of this month in preparation for taking over the troubled firm after it failed to increase its capital and RBC ratio last year.
EXTRATERRITORIAL REACH: China extended its legal jurisdiction to ban some dual-use goods of Chinese origin from being sold to the US, even by third countries Beijing has set out to extend its domestic laws across international borders with a ban on selling some goods to the US that applies to companies both inside and outside China. The new export control rules are China’s first attempt to replicate the extraterritorial reach of US and European sanctions by covering Chinese products or goods with Chinese parts in them. In an announcement this week, China declared it is banning the sale of dual-use items to the US military and also the export to the US of materials such as gallium and germanium. Companies and people overseas would be subject to
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) founder Morris Chang (張忠謀) yesterday said that Intel Corp would find itself in the same predicament as it did four years ago if its board does not come up with a core business strategy. Chang made the remarks in response to reporters’ questions about the ailing US chipmaker, once an archrival of TSMC, during a news conference in Taipei for the launch of the second volume of his autobiography. Intel unexpectedly announced the immediate retirement of former chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger last week, ending his nearly four-year tenure and ending his attempts to revive the
WORLD DOMINATION: TSMC’s lead over second-placed Samsung has grown as the latter faces increased Chinese competition and the end of clients’ product life cycles Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) retained the No. 1 title in the global pure-play wafer foundry business in the third quarter of this year, seeing its market share growing to 64.9 percent to leave South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co, the No. 2 supplier, further behind, Taipei-based TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said in a report. TSMC posted US$23.53 billion in sales in the July-September period, up 13.0 percent from a quarter earlier, which boosted its market share to 64.9 percent, up from 62.3 percent in the second quarter, the report issued on Monday last week showed. TSMC benefited from the debut of flagship
TENSE TIMES: Formosa Plastics sees uncertainty surrounding the incoming Trump administration in the US, geopolitical tensions and China’s faltering economy Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), Taiwan’s largest industrial conglomerate, yesterday posted overall revenue of NT$118.61 billion (US$3.66 billion) for last month, marking a 7.2 percent rise from October, but a 2.5 percent fall from one year earlier. The group has mixed views about its business outlook for the current quarter and beyond, as uncertainty builds over the US power transition and geopolitical tensions. Formosa Plastics Corp (台灣塑膠), a vertically integrated supplier of plastic resins and petrochemicals, reported a monthly uptick of 15.3 percent in its revenue to NT$18.15 billion, as Typhoon Kong-rey postponed partial shipments slated for October and last month, it said. The
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