MANUFACTURING
WW Holding to buy Thai firm
WW Holding Inc (威宏控股), which manufactures sports products and accessories, yesterday said it is to fully acquire Thailand-based TWT Manufacturing Co Ltd for about NT$545 million (US$18.16 million) to boost its competitiveness in the luxury luggage sector, the company said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The deal is part of WW’s three-year project to expand its presence in Southeast Asia and reduce its reliance on China, company president Johnny Sheu (許新居) told reporters yesterday. WW, whose production is mainly based in Dongguan in China’s Guangdong Province, is planning to expand its capacity in Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia over the coming years, Sheu said, without elaborating. The company posted cumulative revenue of NT$4.01 billion for the first 10 months of this year, a 3.69 percent annual decline from NT$4.16 billion last year.
CHIPMAKERS
MediaTek raises forecast
MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the nation’s biggest mobile phone chip supplier, yesterday raised its net profit forecast to between NT$5.66 per share and NT$7.01 per share for this quarter, thanks to a disposal gain from the sale of its holding in Shenzhen-based Goodix Technology Inc (匯頂科技). Goodix, listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, is MediaTek’s touch integrated circuit subsidiary. MediaTek had originally expected earnings per share to be between NT$2.18 and NT$2.67 this quarter. Revenue would be unchanged at between NT$59.2 billion and NT$64.29 billion, the company said, adding that gross margin would also be unchanged at about 36 percent.
ELECTRONICS
Delta, Far EasTone cooperate
Delta Electronics Inc (台達電), the nation’s leading thermal and power management solutions provider, yesterday said it is collaborating with Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信) to install Delta’s smart LED streetlamps with the telecom’s narrowband Internet-of-Things solutions in four industrial zones in northern Taiwan. The collaboration is expected to help the Linkou Industrial Park, the Youth Industrial Park, the Pingjen Industrial Park and the Jhongli Industrial Park monitor their premises more efficiently, Delta said.
SHIPPING
Yang Ming raises NT$6bn
Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp (陽明海運) yesterday announced that it has completed a capital injection plan. The company raised NT$6 billion through the sale of 500 million new shares priced at NT$12 per share, it said. The company, which in February underwent a 53 percent capital reduction, has since raised NT$7.69 billion, while the government has raised its stake in the cargo shipper from 36.27 to 38.23 percent. After posting a loss of NT$14.91 billion last year, the company is upbeat amid a recovery in the global cargo shipping sector.
INVESTMENT
Fubon foresees fluctuation
Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) yesterday forecast that the TAIEX would fluctuate between 9,000 and 11,500 points next year. The company’s economists said that improving turnover on the local bourse would next year sustain further rallies above the 10,000-point mark. The company also forecast that GDP would grow 2.2 percent next year. It predicted that the New Taiwan dollar would trade between NT$29.8 and NT$30.6 against the US dollar in the first half of next year, before slipping to between NT$30 and NT$30.8 in the second half.
Napoleon Osorio is proud of being the first taxi driver to have accepted payment in bitcoin in the first country in the world to make the cryptocurrency legal tender: El Salvador. He credits Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s decision to bank on bitcoin three years ago with changing his life. “Before I was unemployed... And now I have my own business,” said the 39-year-old businessman, who uses an app to charge for rides in bitcoin and now runs his own car rental company. Three years ago the leader of the Central American nation took a huge gamble when he put bitcoin
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).
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