ECONOMY
M1B and M2 increase
The nation’s M1B, a measure of the money in circulation, last month grew 4.61 percent year-on-year, while M2 — which includes M1B, time deposits, foreign currency deposits and mutual funds — advanced by 3.85 percent, the central bank reported on Friday, citing net foreign capital inflows. The average annual growth rates of M1B and M2 in the first 10 months of the year were 4.74 percent and 3.73 percent respectively. The annual growth rate of total outstanding loans and investments of all financial institutions in the nation fell from 5.06 percent to 4.89 percent because of slower growth in bank claims on the government, the central bank said.
CAMERA LENSES
Genius’ net income up 46%
Smartphone camera lens supplier Genius Electronic Optical Co (玉晶光) on Friday reported better-than-expected earnings for last month. Net income grew 46 percent year-on-year to NT$139 million (US$4.63 million), with earnings per share of NT$1.4, the highest in nearly five years. In the first 10 months, total net income hit NT$608.3 million, or NT$6.1 per share, while cumulative revenue increased 9.2 percent to NT$6.095 billion over the period.
BANKING
Asian units’ earnings down
The Financial Supervisory Commission on Thursday said that Taiwanese banks’ combined earnings generated from the 18 nations targeted by the government’s New Southbound Policy reached NT$6.4 billion in the first three quarters of this year, compared with NT$6.7 billion the same period last year, with ASEAN states contributing NT$5.6 billion in earnings (87.5 percent). Banks saw the largest earnings in Vietnam (NT$2.1 billion), followed by Singapore and Australia.
TECH RACE: The Chinese firm showed off its new Mate XT hours after the latest iPhone launch, but its price tag and limited supply could be drawbacks China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday unveiled the world’s first tri-foldable phone, as it seeks to expand its lead in the world’s biggest smartphone market and steal the spotlight from Apple Inc hours after it debuted a new iPhone. The Chinese tech giant showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways like an accordion screen door, during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. The Mate XT comes in red and black and has a 10.2-inch display screen. At 3.6mm thick, it is the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone, Huawei said. The company’s Web site showed that it has garnered more than
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and Episil Technologies Inc (漢磊) yesterday announced plans to jointly build an 8-inch fab to produce silicon carbide (SiC) chips through an equity acquisition deal. SiC chips offer higher efficiency and lower energy loss than pure silicon chips, and they are able to operate at higher temperatures. They have become crucial to the development of electric vehicles, artificial intelligence data centers, green energy storage and industrial devices. Vanguard, a contract chipmaker focused on making power management chips and driver ICs for displays, is to acquire a 13 percent stake in Episil for NT$2.48 billion (US$77.1 million).
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
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