BROKERAGES
Profits up on higher turnover
Statistics compiled by the Taiwan Stock Exchange showed that local securities firms posted NT$550 million (US$17.23 million) in net profit last month, as the average daily turnover on the main board grew 14.37 percent from a month earlier to NT$75.6 billion, leading to a 17 percent increase in fee income. However, in the first 11 months of this year, securities firms posted net profit of NT$19.4 billion, compared with NT$21.2 billion the previous year, as the average daily turnover shrank by 15 percent year-on-year, the exchange said.
BANKING
Yuan deposits bounce back
Yuan deposits increased 0.16 percent month-on-month to 309.023 billion yuan (US$44.56 billion) last month, reversing a decline the previous month, driven mainly by local companies’ fund management, the central bank said yesterday. Yuan deposits at banks’ domestic banking units grew 0.62 percent to 273.65 billion yuan from the previous month, while yuan deposits at their overseas banking units declined 3.26 percent to 35.38 billion yuan, the central bank said.
CHIP TESTERS
SPIL cuts capital expenditure
Siliconware Precision Industries Co Ltd (SPIL, 矽品精密) yesterday said its board approved capital expenditure of NT$15.5 billion for next year, compared with a budget of NT$17.9 billion this year. Next year’s expenditure would be used to boost capacity and in research and development, the company said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
BANKING
Manila branch to open today
State-run First Commercial Bank (第一銀行), the banking arm of First Financial Holding Co (第一金控), is to open a branch in Manila today, when it is scheduled to obtain an operating license from the Philippine regulator, the local lender said in a statement yesterday. The branch would help extend the company’s presence in ASEAN markets in line with the government’s “new southbound policy” intended to cut the nation’s economic dependence on China. The Manila branch is mainly to focus on lending, savings, trade financing, remittances and foreign exchange, it said.
ELECTRONICS
HTC’s Vive to be No. 2 seller
HTC Corp’s (宏達電) Vive virtual-reality headset is expected to rank as the No. 2 bestseller worldwide in its category this year, advisory firm Canalys said on Wednesday. Canalys forecast HTC would ship 500,000 units this year, second only to Sony Corp’s PlayStation VR with an estimated 800,000 units. HTC’s US$100 discount on the Vive on Black Friday and Cyber Monday during the US Thanksgiving season was one of the factors that helped boost its sales in the US market, Canalys said. Another factor was HTC’s big marketing push in China, it said.
INTERNET
Meitu Inc IPO disappoints
Chinese beauty app Meitu Inc (美圖) clung to its offer price on its first day of trading, a less-than-stellar debut for Hong Kong’s largest technology initial public offering (IPO) in almost a decade. Meitu’s shares closed at HK$8.50, unchanged from the offer price set at the bottom of a marketed range. The mobile app developer and phone maker is valued at HK$35.9 billion (US$4.6 billion). Meitu expects its Internet services, which include ads and virtual gifts, to break even by the end of next year, according to its prospectus.
INVENTORY DOUBLED: Key parts have backed up in warehouses, halting notebook production, as Acer’s CEO said that a gradual reopening would not solve the problem PC vendor Acer Inc (宏碁) yesterday said that lockdowns in China to control COVID-19 upended key component supply and disrupted PC production, although chip shortages have been improving. While chip supply constraints largely eased in the first quarter, the company faces uneven supplies of key components due to COVID-19 restrictions in China, Acer chairman and CEO Jason Chen (陳俊聖) told an online news conference. “Semiconductor shortage was the biggest problem in the first half of last year,” Chen said. “Now, we are beset by a supply chain issue caused by China's lockdowns.” With key components unable to be delivered and backing up in
MORE THAN BUZZ: The chip designer said it has received numerous orders from automakers to supply 5G modem chips, as it works to expand beyond smartphones MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday said it would ship the first 5G chips for vehicles to customers in the Asia-Pacific region by the end of the year, as it moves to expand the reach of its 5G chips beyond smartphones. The Hsinchu-based chip designer said it has been developing 5G chips for connected vehicles over the past few years, targeting applications such as telematics and in-vehicle information systems. “We are seeing demand for 5G technology from numerous makers of connected cars, including electric vehicle makers. We have obtained numerous orders from automakers to supply 5G modem chips with highly integrated features,” J.C. Hsu
E Ink Holdings Inc (元太科技) yesterday said it would further expand capacity to cope with robust demand for e-paper displays used in e-readers, e-notes and electronic shelf labels, as the COVID-19 pandemic and rising inflation have not dampened consumer demand. Although rising inflation is weakening companies’ purchasing power, E Ink said that its customers have not scaled down orders for e-paper displays used in e-readers. “Reading is still the most affordable leisure activity that people have,” E Ink CEO Johnson Lee (李政昊) told an online investors’ conference in Taipei. As e-books are less expensive than paper books, “we have so far not seen
Covestro Taiwan Ltd (台灣科思創) yesterday launched a new research and development center that is to specialize in resin synthesis and fiberoptic coating after its parent company, Covestro AG, acquired a resins business from Royal DSM, it said. The German company in September 2020 agreed to buy the resins and functional materials business from Royal DSM for about 1.61 billion euros (US$1.69 billion), corporate data showed. The Dutch company’s local units, such as Covestro Resins (ROA) Ltd (帝昇) and Covestro Resins (Taiwan) Ltd (新力美), are next month to be integrated into Covestro Taiwan Ltd, with their employees continuing resins development, Covestro Taiwan said. The
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