MANUFACTURING
SEMI sees stable recovery
The book-to-bill ratio for US-based semiconductor equipment manufacturers fell to 1.05 last month from a month earlier, Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) said yesterday. It was the third consecutive month the ratio reached more than one, indicating a stable recovery for the international semiconductor industry, SEMI said. Last month’s ratio of 1.05 was lower than 1.07 in January.
FINANCE
Chailease sets dividend
Chailease Holding Co Ltd (中租控股), the nation’s top leasing services provider, has proposed to pay a cash dividend of NT$3.1 per share, after earnings per share rose to NT$6.02 last year from NT$5.09 in 2014. Dividend yield was 5.56 percent based on yesterday’s share price of NT$56.1, but the dividend payout for last year was lower than the NT$3.2 per share it distributed in the previous year. Chailease has set a shareholders’ meeting on Sunday next week to approve the proposal.
ECONOMY
Market optimism growing
Public confidence in the nation’s stock market and economic prospects are growing optimistic faster this month than last month, despite still-discouraging economic indicators released by the government lately, Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) said yesterday. Public confidence in the economy has been rising since September last year, while sentiments on the stock market has reached the highest in eight months, the company said, citing a survey released yesterday.
BANKING
Chang Hwa to raise capital
State-run Chang Hwa Commercial Bank Ltd (CHB, 彰化銀行) is planning to increase its capitalization, despite opposition from its largest shareholder, Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控). Chang Hwa said its board has agreed to increase its paid-in capital from NT$90 billion to NT$110 billion (US$2.8 billion to US$33.8 billion) to improve its credit metrics. Taishin Financial owns a 22.5 percent stake in Chang Hwa Bank and has been tussling with the government over the management control in Chang Hwa Bank in recent years.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Win to optimize metrics
Win Semiconductors Corp (穩懋半導體) on Thursday announced plans to reduce capital by NT$1.79 billion, or 30 percent, and to distribute a cash dividend of NT$0.5, which are subject to approval at the company’s annual general meeting scheduled for June 24. Overall, shareholders would receive NT$3.5 per share, the company said. Daiwa Capital Markets Inc said in a note yesterday that the move would help optimize the company’s profitability metrics, such as return on equity and return on invested capital.
INDUSTRY
Giga sees clear orders
Solar material producer Giga Solar Materials Corp (碩禾電子) on Thursday said the company’s board has proposed a cash dividend of NT$20 per share, the highest in four years. Based on last year’s earnings per share of NT$39.65, the company’s dividend payout ratio is about 50.4 percent. Giga Solar’s business focuses on photovoltaic conductive pastes for solar cells. The company said it has seen clear order visibility for front-side silver paste, rear-side silver paste and aluminum paste since last quarter and might consider capacity expansion to meet client demand.
OpenAI has warned US lawmakers that its Chinese rival DeepSeek (深度求索) is using unfair and increasingly sophisticated methods to extract results from leading US artificial intelligence (AI) models to train the next generation of its breakthrough R1 chatbot, a memo reviewed by Bloomberg News showed. In the memo, sent on Thursday to the US House of Representatives Select Committee on China, OpenAI said that DeepSeek had used so-called distillation techniques as part of “ongoing efforts to free-ride on the capabilities developed by OpenAI and other US frontier labs.” The company said it had detected “new, obfuscated methods” designed to evade OpenAI’s defenses
NEW IMPORTS: Car dealer PG Union Corp said it would consider introducing US-made models such as the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Stellantis’ RAM 1500 to Taiwan Tesla Taiwan yesterday said that it does not plan to cut its car prices in the wake of Washington and Taipei signing the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade on Thursday to eliminate tariffs on US-made cars. On the other hand, Mercedes-Benz Taiwan said it is planning to lower the price of its five models imported from the US after the zero tariff comes into effect. Tesla in a statement said it has no plan to adjust the prices of the US-made Model 3, Model S and Model X as tariffs are not the only factor the automaker uses to determine pricing policies. Tesla said
China’s top chipmaker has warned that breakaway spending on artificial intelligence (AI) chips is bringing forward years of future demand, raising the risk that some data centers could sit idle. “Companies would love to build 10 years’ worth of data center capacity within one or two years,” Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯) cochief executive officer Zhao Haijun (趙海軍) said yesterday on a call with analysts. “As for what exactly these data centers will do, that hasn’t been fully thought through.” Moody’s Ratings projects that AI-related infrastructure investment would exceed US$3 trillion over the next five years, as developers pour eye-watering sums
Australian singer Kylie Minogue says “nothing compares” to performing live, but becoming an international wine magnate in under six years has been quite a thrill for the Spinning Around star. Minogue launched her first own-label wine in 2020 in partnership with celebrity drinks expert Paul Schaafsma, starting with a basic rose but quickly expanding to include sparkling, no-alcohol and premium rose offerings. The actress and singer has since wracked up sales of around 25 million bottles, with her carefully branded products pitched at low-to mid-range prices in dozens of countries. Britain, Australia and the United States are the biggest markets. “Nothing compares to performing
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