Papermaking conglomerate YFY Inc (永豐餘控股) yesterday said that its board has approved a request that Sun Power Development and Construction Co (三寶建設) repay US$12.29 million within one-and-a-half months after convertible bonds issued by its subsidiary Giant Crystal Universal Development Inc defaulted.
YFY subscribed to US$8.5 million of convertible bonds issued by Giant Crystal, which matured on June 20 after a one-year extension, the company said yesterday in a statement filed with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
It has requested Sun Power repay US$12.29 million of the convertible bonds before Aug. 15, including interest charged at a rate of 10 percent in the extension period, YFY said in the filing.
Sun Power has signed an agreement to pay back the debt, YFT said.
Sun Power also added one more piece of real-estate collateral for the repayment, as requested by YFY, the papermaker said.
Sun Power’s planned sale of a commercial building in Shanghai has been suspended, which caused the construction company to default on the bond, YFY said.
The default is related to a series of loan scandals involving SinoPac Financial Holdings Co (永豐金控), which is accused of extending more than NT$5 billion (US$164.3 million) in questionable loans to Sun Power.
SinoPac Financial and YFY were founded by the family of former SinoPac chairman Ho Shou-chuan (何壽川), who was detained on June 18 suspicion of violating the Securities and Exchange Act (證券交易法).
Without sufficient collateral and proper authorization, the loans transferred between shell companies owned by Sun Power and SinoPac Financial have raised questions over the group’s regulatory compliance, the Financial Supervisory Commission said.
The ongoing investigation would not affect its operations, YFY said in a statement.
Ho still serves as director of the firm’s board.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
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