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.
DEJA VU: Echoing the probe into real-estate giant Evergrande Group, the bank is under Beijing police scrutiny after last week, telling investors it is ‘severely insolvent’ Chinese authorities said they recently opened criminal investigations into Zhongzhi Enterprise Group Co’s (中植企業) money management business, days after the embattled shadow banking giant revealed a shortfall of US$36.4 billion in its balance sheet. Police in Beijing said in a statement on WeChat that they took “criminal mandatory measures” against multiple suspects, identifying one by their last name, Xie (解). They urged investors to report cases or provide leads to the authorities, including filing complaints online. Xie Zhikun (解直錕), the group’s founder, died in 2021, but several of his relatives are executives at the company. The statement did not elaborate on what
CONSIDERATIONS: The NSTC instructed the park to assist laid-off workers and urge companies to use furlough programs to ease the effects of falling demand Firms in the Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區), which houses major tech companies, reported laying off 496 employees last month amid weakened global demand, Hsinchu Science Park Bureau director-general Wayne Wang (王永壯) said yesterday. Wang told a news conference that 48 companies in the science park laid off employees last month, including one hard disk supplier which let go 241 employees as part of a plant closure due to falling demand. Other companies reported sporadic layoffs as they adjusted to weakening demand, he said. Wang made the remarks after local media reported the layoffs over the weekend. Although the global economy is struggling with high
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and German Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action Robert Habeck have promised to solve investment subsidy issues for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Intel Corp, despite the country’s budget woes. Uncertainty over the funding to TSMC and Intel has arisen after a ruling by the German Federal Constitutional Court, which cast doubt over subsidies for construction of local semiconductor chip plants. On Nov. 15, the court ruled that the German government’s decision last year to reallocate 60 billion euros (US$65.74 billion) of unused funding from COVID-19 pandemic support measures to its Climate and Transformation Fund
NEW TREAD: The Taiwanese shoe brand paired with TSMC to turn silicon waste into a circular economy good, following its success making shoes from coffee grounds Ccilu International Inc (馳綠國際), a Taiwan-based footwear brand, has become the first company in the world to turn silicon waste from contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) into eco-friendly shoes. Last year, the global footwear industry saw the first pair of pressure-relief slippers made from recycled silicon waste by Ccilu. The brand continued to unveil follow-up collections, including sports shoes and massage slippers made from the same materials. In an interview with CNA, Ccilu CEO Wilson Hsu (許佳鳴) recalled the company’s innovation of the first pair of slippers made from silicon waste after its silicon waste treatment partner, Semisils Applied Materials
RSS