BANKING
OBU assets listed
The 62 offshore banking units (OBUs) of banks operating in Taiwan posted total assets of US$181.924 billion last month, down US$5.083 billion, or 2.7 percent, from the previous month, the central bank said in a statement yesterday. The OBUs of 37 Taiwanese banks held US$157.204 billion in assets, while US$24.72 billion in assets were held by the OBUs of 25 foreign banks, the central bank said, without elaborating on the decline in total assets. The OBUs’ lending made up about 44.9 percent of their total assets, with interbank lending and deposits accounting for 18.7 percent. Securities investments accounted for an additional 16.2 percent, the central bank said.
ELECTRONICS
Winbond reports earnings
Winbond Electronics Corp (華邦電子) yesterday reported earnings per share of NT$0.9 for the whole of last year, compared with NT$0.83 the previous year. Net income rose 7 percent year-on-year to NT$3.29 billion (US$97.92 million) last year, with consolidated revenue increasing 1 percent to NT$38.35 billion — its highest in five years — and gross margin moving up 3 pecentage points to 31 percent, the company said in a statement. Specialty DRAM chips are Winbond’s biggest revenue source, providing more than 50 percent of its overall revenue last year.
WEDDING SERVICES
Clevo acquires Da Lue stake
PC maker Clevo Co (藍天) yesterday said it had acquired a 5 percent stake in Da Lue International Holding Co Ltd (大略), a Cayman Islands-registered wedding services provider, with a view to developing wedding-related business in China. Clevo, which operates Buynow (百腦匯) computer and electronics chain stores in China, said it is upbeat over Da Lue’s business prospects in China this year, after the wedding services provider reported earnings per share of NT$5.2 last year, an annual increase of 171 percent from 2014.
LIGHTING
Global reports record sales
Global Lighting Technologies Inc (茂林光電), a light guide plate maker, yesterday reported record-high sales results for last year and said it expects sales to grow this year on growing orders and capacity expansion. The Cayman Islands-registered company said earnings per share were NT$6.5 last year, with revenue of NT$7.06 billion and gross margin of 24 percent. The company said its new plant in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼) is expected to start operations in the second quarter of this year. Analysts expect the company’s revenue to grow by between 10 and 20 percent to NT$8 billion this year, due to rising demand for large-sized TVs and Apple Inc computers.
FOOD
Wei Chuan to sell stakes
Wei Chuan Foods Corp (味全食品) yesterday said its board agreed to sell its 34 percent stakes in two subsidiaries that distribute coffee products made by Japan’s UCC Ueshima Coffee Co Ltd. The stakes are to be sold back to the Japanese company’s Singapore-based subsidiary, UCC Asia Pacific PTE Ltd, Wei Chuan said in a statement. The announcement came after UCC products were included in a boycott of products associated with scandal-ridden Ting Hsin International Group (頂新集團) last year. Wei Chuan, a subsidiary of Ting Hsin, said that it is to focus on its core food business and did not specify prices involved in the deal.
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said second-quarter revenue is expected to surpass the first quarter, which rose 30 percent year-on-year to NT$118.92 billion (US$3.71 billion). Revenue this quarter is likely to grow, as US clients have front-loaded orders ahead of US President Donald Trump’s planned tariffs on Taiwanese goods, Delta chairman Ping Cheng (鄭平) said at an earnings conference in Taipei, referring to the 90-day pause in tariff implementation Trump announced on April 9. While situations in the third and fourth quarters remain unclear, “We will not halt our long-term deployments and do not plan to
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
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