TELECOMS
Gemtek forecasts 40-60 split
Telecom equipment maker Gemtek Technology Co (正文) yesterday guided its full-year sales split to be 40-60 for the first and second halves of this year, as the company is shifting its focus on cloud-computing-related businesses. Consolidated sales for last year fell 0.87 percent to NT$17.53 billion (US$536.17 million) from a year earlier, with a net profit of NT$206 million, or NT$0.69 per share, Gemtek said. Apart from cloud-based solutions, wireless broadband products, long-term evolution-enabled items and equipment support for G-fast technology are expected to drive the company’s sales growth this year, Gemtek chairman Howard Chen (陳鴻文) said.
FINANCE
Mega chairman resigns
State-run Mega Financial Holding Co (兆豐金控) yesterday said that chairman Mckinney Tsai (蔡友才) has tendered his resignation and is to leave the post on Friday. Minister of Finance Chang Sheng-ford (張盛和) confirmed that Tsai had expressed his intention to leave the post about six months ago due to personal reasons, the Central News Agency reported. Chang said Mega Financial president Wu Hann-ching (吳漢卿) will take over management of the company until a new chairman is chosen by the incoming government after May 20.
INSURANCE
Taiwan Fire & Marine fined
The Financial Supervisory Commission yesterday fined Taiwan Fire & Marine Insurance Co (台灣產物保險) NT$4.8 million for irregularities in the company’s internal control mechanisms. The commission also decided to suspend the insurer’s sales of fire insurance to commercial users for one month beginning on April 15.
FINANCE
KD to continue ‘green’ focus
Investment holding company KD Holding Corp (崑鼎) yesterday said it would continue focusing on environmental protection, green energy and renewable energy businesses this year, hoping its total sales would be higher than last year’s NT$4.08 billion. The company said it also plans to invest in overseas markets, including China, Malaysia and India. The company reported a net profit of NT$710 million for last year, up 4.6 percent year-on-year, with earnings per share of NT$10.84.
ONLINE GAMES
X-Legend sales down
Online game publisher X-Legend Entertainment Co (傳奇網路) yesterday reported a net profit of NT$30 million for last year, with earnings per share of NT$0.27, the lowest in five years. Annual sales for last year decreased 15.92 percent to NT$1.24 billion, due to flat sales of new products and declining contribution from royalties. The company’s board on Monday approved a plan to pay a cash dividend of NT$0.25 per share, which is to be subject to a shareholder approval on June 22.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Inotera plan approved
Shareholders of Inotera Memories Inc (華亞科技), a DRAM joint venture between Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) and Micron Technology Inc, yesterday approved plans to sell Nanya’s 24 percent holding in the company to Micron in a deal worth NT$132.5 billion. The transaction is expected to be completed in the middle of this year. Inotera will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Micron and will be delisted from the local stock market. Inotera’s board yesterday also approved a budget of NT$6.1 billion on developing 20-nanometer process technology.
The London Metal Exchange (LME) discovered bags of stones instead of the nickel that underpinned a handful of its contracts at a warehouse in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in a revelation that would deliver another blow to confidence in the embattled exchange. The amount of metal represents just 0.14 percent of live nickel inventories on the LME, worth about US$1.3 million at current prices, so the immediate effect on the metals markets is limited. However, the shock announcement has much wider implications. In an industry riddled with scandals, the LME’s contracts are viewed as unquestionably safe. The news that even a few of
Oil on Friday posted its worst weekly loss since the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic as banking turmoil poisoned investor sentiment. West Texas Intermediate for April delivery dropped 2.36 percent to US$66.74 per barrel, falling 12.96 percent for the week, the largest drop in almost three years. Brent crude for May delivery fell 2.32 percent to US$72.97, posting a weekly loss of 11.85 percent. The failure of Silicon Valley Bank and troubles at Credit Suisse Group AG drove investors from risk assets, with oil-options covering accelerating the sell-off. “Crude action this week reminded many of how quickly the commodity can be decimated by
Singapore pushed New York off the top spot for the strongest growth in residential rents in the final quarter of last year, fueled by a supply crunch and strong demand. The city-state saw annual rents jump 28 percent in the quarter from a year earlier, Knight Frank said in a report. New York followed with 19 percent growth, while London and Toronto took the third and fourth spots, a survey of prime residential rents across 10 cities showed. Singapore’s soaring rents — driven partly due to a lack of supply of new housing during the COVID-19 pandemic — have been a source of
US-based mobile chip designer Qualcomm Inc yesterday opened a manufacturing engineering and testing center in Hsinchu, expanding its presence in Taiwan. Qualcomm also expects to accelerate its purchases in Taiwan, which already rose to NT$240 billion (US$7.9 billion) last year, up from NT$90 billion five years earlier, and should hit NT$300 billion next year. The center is to provide services for the supply chain in the semiconductor industry, Roawen Chen (陳若文), senior vice president and chief supply chain and operations officer of Qualcomm, said at the facility’s inauguration ceremony. It is Qualcomm’s largest and most advanced engineering testing center outside of the company’s
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