Takashimaya Co, a leading Japanese retailer, has decided to sell its stake in a jointly owned department store in Taipei to its partner as a way of withdrawing from the Taiwan retail market, the department store said yesterday.
Takashimaya is to sell its 50 percent stake in the Dayeh Takashimaya Department Store (大葉高島屋百貨) in Taipei’s Shilin District (士林) to Dayeh Group (大葉集團), which owns the other half.
The stake is to be sold at a price of NT$492 million (US$15.04 million), according to local media reports.
In 1994, Takashimaya and Dayeh teamed up to open the department store in the affluent Tianmu (天母) neighborhood, where many expatriates live.
The store once generated annual revenue of NT$5.8 billion, but has been encountering stiff competition in the Tianmu area since the Pacific Sogo Department Store (太平洋崇光百貨) and the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Department Store (新光三越百貨) entered the market, analysts said.
In 2014, Takashimaya Dayeh spent NT$1.2 billion on a remodeling project, hoping that a new image would attract young consumers, but it has not been able to meet its goal of NT$5 billion in annual revenue.
Meanwhile, Pacific Sogo and Shin Kong Mitsukoshi have been increasing their share of business in Tianmu, which is estimated to be NT$10 billion a year.
Takashimaya Dayeh said that over the past 20 years, it has built a management team that largely comprises local talent, adding that the share sale is unlikely to affect its operations.
Dayeh Group is a Taiwanese conglomerate that has a wide range of businesses, including retail, restaurants, healthcare, car engine development and property development.
The withdrawal of Takashimaya from the department store business in Taipei follows a similar move in March by Japan-based Hankyu Hanshin Department Stores, which was a joint owner of the Uni-President Hankyu department stores (統一阪急百貨) in Taipei and Kaohsiung for about 10 years.
After several years flying high as Asia’s best Nvidia Corp proxy, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is increasingly vying with other artificial intelligence (AI) stocks for investor attention. Stock traders are chasing a wider array of beneficiaries as mainstream usage of AI creates demand for hardware beyond the most-advanced chips TSMC makes for Nvidia. Subthemes from the deepening memory crunch to advances in robotics are also luring bids. At the same time, investment caps on single stocks are pushing funds to diversify, while retail investors long familiar with TSMC through its US depositary receipts are being offered a broader set of
Netherlands-based semiconductor equipment supplier ASML Holding NV yesterday said that it is planning to hire an additional 1,000 people in Taiwan this year in response to growing demand from clients. ASML had previously planned to recruit 600 people this year, but that the plan has been adjusted upward, ASML vice president and ASML Taiwan general manager Grace Wang (汪佳慧) told reporters. ASML has a workforce of more than 4,500 in Taiwan, accounting for about 10 percent of its global total, Wang said. This year’s recruitment campaign would focus on adding people in the customer support, manufacturing and supply chain domains to assist ASML
UNDER MICROSCOPE: Taiwan detained three people who allegedly conspired to buy servers in Taiwan and export them using fraudulent documentation, prosecutors said Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Saturday urged Super Micro Computer Inc to tighten up on compliance after Taiwan detained three people this week for allegedly making fraudulent declarations about artificial intelligence (AI) servers made by its US partner. The development marked the nation’s first crackdown on semiconductor smuggling, which grew after the US slapped restrictions on exports of high-end chips such as Nvidia AI accelerators to China. Nvidia is “rigorous” in explaining regulations to all of its partners, Huang told reporters after arriving in Taipei. “Ultimately Super Micro has to run their own company,” he said in response to
Nvidia Corp yesterday announced that CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) would attend an employee meeting in Taipei tomorrow to celebrate the launch of the company’s Taiwan headquarters project. Huang would attend a gathering at the site of Nvidia’s planned headquarters in Beitou Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區), the company said in a statement. After arriving in Taiwan on Saturday last week, Huang told reporters that he plans to meet with Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家), and would attend the groundbreaking ceremony for Nvidia’s Taiwan headquarters tomorrow. Nvidia has not yet applied
RSS