INVESTMENT
Cathay raising Sea Ltd funds
Cathay Securities Corp (國泰綜合證券) yesterday announced that its overseas security unit has been selected to oversee further fundraising for Sea Ltd in Taiwan, after the Singaporean company’s initial public offering (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange on Oct. 20. Sea Ltd operates Garena, an online game distributor, Shopee, an e-commerce platform and AirPay, a digital financial services platform. At the end of Monday’s session, Sea’s market capitalization was estimated at about US$4.61 billion. Separately, Cathay Securities said that it has competed six secondary public offering deals during the first nine months of this year.
RETAIL
Momo.com income drops
TV and online retailer Momo.com Inc (富邦媒) yesterday reported a 3.62 percent annual decline in net income to NT$243.36 million (US$8.06 million) last quarter. Earnings contracted by 31.08 percent from the NT$353.12 million made in the previous quarter, Momo.com’s filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange showed. The drop in earnings and weaker-than-expected sales in its TV and catalog business offset the growth in its online retail segment, it said in a statement. Momo.com’s combined earnings totaled NT$906.41 million in the first three quarters, an increase of 1.5 percent from NT$892.98 million the same period a year ago. Earnings per share were NT$6.47 for the first nine months of this year, compared with the NT$6.38 per share over the same period last year, the filing showed.
IPO
Long Chen eyes China IPO
Papermaker Long Chen Paper Co (榮成紙業) yesterday said it plans to hold an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting on Dec. 19 to discuss a proposal to debut its Chinese subsidiary on the Chinese stock exchanges, according to a company filing. Long Chen, which enjoys a solid position in eastern China’s papermaking industry, operates China business through its major unit Jiangsu Longchen Greentech Co Ltd (江蘇榮成環保科技), data showed. The Taiwanese firm did not provide a detailed timetable for the IPO plan.
STEELMAKERS
China Steel profits up 58%
China Steel Corp (中鋼), the nation’s only integrated steelmaker, on Monday posted pretax profit of NT$2.28 billion for last month, a 58 percent jump from the previous month, mainly due to higher product prices. In the first three quarters of this year, pretax profit totaled NT$14.85 billion, which translated into a 11 percent annual decrease from NT$16.67 billion a year earlier. Despite the decline in cumulative profit, the company gave an optimistic business outlook for the fourth quarter, saying that it might benefit from an upward trend in global steel prices. China Steel shares yesterday edged down 0.41 percent to close at NT$24.55 in Taipei trading.
ELECTRONICS
Advantech to buy rival shares
Advantech Co (研華), the nation’s biggest industrial computer maker, yesterday said its board has approved the purchase of 12 million common shares of Winmate Inc (融程電訊) for NT$540 million. After the purchase, Advantech is to hold about a 16.62 percent stake in Winmate, a smaller local rival. The equity investment will allow Winmate to join Advantech’s Internet of Things Allied Platform Service Alliance, Advantech said in a statement. The offer of NT$45 per share represented a discount of 23 percent, compared with Winmate’s closing price of NT$58.5 yesterday.
DIVIDED VIEWS: Although the Fed agreed on holding rates steady, some officials see no rate cuts for this year, while 10 policymakers foresee two or more cuts There are a lot of unknowns about the outlook for the economy and interest rates, but US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled at least one thing seems certain: Higher prices are coming. Fed policymakers voted unanimously to hold interest rates steady at a range of 4.25 percent to 4.50 percent for a fourth straight meeting on Wednesday, as they await clarity on whether tariffs would leave a one-time or more lasting mark on inflation. Powell said it is still unclear how much of the bill would fall on the shoulders of consumers, but he expects to learn more about tariffs
Meta Platforms Inc offered US$100 million bonuses to OpenAI employees in an unsuccessful bid to poach the ChatGPT maker’s talent and strengthen its own generative artificial intelligence (AI) teams, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said. Facebook’s parent company — a competitor of OpenAI — also offered “giant” annual salaries exceeding US$100 million to OpenAI staffers, Altman said in an interview on the Uncapped with Jack Altman podcast released on Tuesday. “It is crazy,” Sam Altman told his brother Jack in the interview. “I’m really happy that at least so far none of our best people have decided to take them
PLANS: MSI is also planning to upgrade its service center in the Netherlands Micro-Star International Co (MSI, 微星) yesterday said it plans to set up a server assembly line at its Poland service center this year at the earliest. The computer and peripherals manufacturer expects that the new server assembly line would shorten transportation times in shipments to European countries, a company spokesperson told the Taipei Times by telephone. MSI manufactures motherboards, graphics cards, notebook computers, servers, optical storage devices and communication devices. The company operates plants in Taiwan and China, and runs a global network of service centers. The company is also considering upgrading its service center in the Netherlands into a
NOT JUSTIFIED: The bank’s governor said there would only be a rate cut if inflation falls below 1.5% and economic conditions deteriorate, which have not been detected The central bank yesterday kept its key interest rates unchanged for a fifth consecutive quarter, aligning with market expectations, while slightly lowering its inflation outlook amid signs of cooling price pressures. The move came after the US Federal Reserve held rates steady overnight, despite pressure from US President Donald Trump to cut borrowing costs. Central bank board members unanimously voted to maintain the discount rate at 2 percent, the secured loan rate at 2.375 percent and the overnight lending rate at 4.25 percent. “We consider the policy decision appropriate, although it suggests tightening leaning after factoring in slackening inflation and stable GDP growth,”
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