SEMICONDUCTORS
ASE adds to SPIL stake
Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE, 日月光半導體), the world’s largest chip packager and tester, yesterday said it bought an additional 15.22 million shares of rival Siliconware Precision Industries Co (SPIL, 矽品精密) on the open market for about NT$785 million (US$23.95 million). That increased ASE’s holding in SPIL by 0.5 percent to 25.49 percent, the company said in a stock exchange filing. ASE said it bought the shares at NT$51.56 per share, lower than the NT$55 the company had proposed to SPIL shareholders in a second tender offer, which failed last week.
STEELMAKERS
CSC to distribute dividends
China Steel Corp (CSC, 中鋼) yesterday said its board has decided to distribute cash dividends of NT$1.4 per preferred share and NT$0.5 per common share, after the nation’s biggest steelmaker made a net profit of NT$9.91 billion last year, or NT$0.63 per share. The board also agreed to invest NT$263 million on new conveyor belts to be installed in raw material depots in Kaohsiung. CSC said the new conveyor belts would save time and cut costs in raw material transportation. The proposals are to be subjected to a shareholder vote at an annual meeting on June 23.
LEASING
Chailease income up 2%
Chailease Holding Co Ltd (中租控股), the nation’s top leasing services provider, yesterday said its net income last month rose 2 percent annually to NT$520 million. However, the figure dipped 6 percent from January, because of lower interest income due to fewer working days. Aggregate net income in the first two months of this year slid 2.26 percent annually to NT$1.12 billion. Speaking of its investment in solar power plants, the company said it is operating more than 200 plants and expecting steady profit contributions from their long-term contracts with state-run Taiwan Power Co (台電).
TOURISM
Lion Travel income rises
Lion Travel Service Co Ltd (雄獅旅行社), the nation’s largest outbound travel service company, yesterday said its net income increased 17.26 percent year-on-year to NT$450 million last year, with an earnings per share of NT$6.43. The company’s board has decided to distribute a cash dividend of NT$4.6 per share, representing a payout ratio of 71.54 percent. Aided by a travel boom, the company said sales for last year rose 18.74 percent to NT$21 billion. From January through last month, cumulative sales totaled NT$3.19 billion, up 11.58 percent from the same period last year.
COMPUTER SERVICES
IEI shares fall 9 percent
Shares of IEI Integration Corp (威強電), a leading industrial computing service provide, fell as much as 9 percent yesterday amid allegations of insider trading involving several company executives. Shares closed 6.29 percent lower at NT$38. Investigators yesterday searched IEI Integration’s headquarters in Taipei, as well as the residences of key executives, the company said. Prosecutors also questioned several officials of the company’s top management, including chairman Teddy Kuo (郭博達), for suspected trading irregularities. The company has not released its full-year financial results for last year. In the first three quarters of last year, the company’s net income dropped 10.8 percent from a year earlier to NT$948 million, or NT$2.89 per share. Cumulative sales for the first two months of this year totaled NT$1.09 billion, up 4.25 percent year-on-year, company data showed.
CHIP WAR: Tariffs on Taiwanese chips would prompt companies to move their factories, but not necessarily to the US, unleashing a ‘global cross-sector tariff war’ US President Donald Trump would “shoot himself in the foot” if he follows through on his recent pledge to impose higher tariffs on Taiwanese and other foreign semiconductors entering the US, analysts said. Trump’s plans to raise tariffs on chips manufactured in Taiwan to as high as 100 percent would backfire, macroeconomist Henry Wu (吳嘉隆) said. He would “shoot himself in the foot,” Wu said on Saturday, as such economic measures would lead Taiwanese chip suppliers to pass on additional costs to their US clients and consumers, and ultimately cause another wave of inflation. Trump has claimed that Taiwan took up to
SUPPORT: The government said it would help firms deal with supply disruptions, after Trump signed orders imposing tariffs of 25 percent on imports from Canada and Mexico The government pledged to help companies with operations in Mexico, such as iPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), shift production lines and investment if needed to deal with higher US tariffs. The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday announced measures to help local firms cope with the US tariff increases on Canada, Mexico, China and other potential areas. The ministry said that it would establish an investment and trade service center in the US to help Taiwanese firms assess the investment environment in different US states, plan supply chain relocation strategies and
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) is reportedly making another pass at Nissan Motor Co, as the Japanese automaker's tie-up with Honda Motor Co falls apart. Nissan shares rose as much as 6 percent after Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported that Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) instructed former Nissan executive Jun Seki to connect with French carmaker Renault SA, which holds about 36 percent of Nissan’s stock. Hon Hai, the Taiwanese iPhone-maker also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), was exploring an investment or buyout of Nissan last year, but backed off in December after the Japanese carmaker penned a deal
WASHINGTON POLICY: Tariffs of 10 percent or more and other new costs are tipped to hit shipments of small parcels, cutting export growth by 1.3 percentage points The decision by US President Donald Trump to ban Chinese companies from using a US tariff loophole would hit tens of billions of dollars of trade and reduce China’s economic growth this year, according to new estimates by economists at Nomura Holdings Inc. According to Nomura’s estimates, last year companies such as Shein (希音) and PDD Holdings Inc’s (拼多多控股) Temu shipped US$46 billion of small parcels to the US to take advantage of the rule that allows items with a declared value under US$800 to enter the US tariff-free. Tariffs of 10 percent or more and other new costs would slash such