HOSPITALITY
FDC hits highest-ever revenue
Hotel and restaurant operator FDC International Hotels Corp (雲品國際), which expanded its banquet business through a number of acquisitions and mergers last year, yesterday reported that its net profit increased 19 percent to NT$228 million (US$7.82 million) from a year earlier, or record earnings per share of NT$3.48. The company’s revenue was the highest in its history at NT$1.53 billion, up 15 percent year-on-year. The company’s board has proposed a cash dividend of NT$2.75 per common share, which would mean a payout ratio of 79.02 percent if it is approved at an annual general meeting scheduled for May 30.
MANUFACTURING
Nan Ya Plastics dividend up
Nan Ya Plastics Corp (南亞塑膠), a major unit of Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團) that manufactures electronic materials and plastic, fiber and petrochemical products, yesterday said its board has approved a cash dividend of NT$5.1 per common share, the highest since 2009. Based on last year’s earnings per share of NT$6.87, the payout ratio is 74.24 percent. Meanwhile, Formosa Plastics Corp (台塑), the Formosa Plastics Group’s flagship company and the nation’s largest maker of polyvinyl chloride resins, on Thursday approved a cash dividend of NT$5.7 per common share, a seven-year high that represents a payout ratio of 75.2 percent based on last year’s earnings per share of NT$7.58.
TOURISM
Lion Travel sees record sales
Lion Travel Service Co (雄獅旅行社) yesterday posted record sales and earnings for last year and the company’s board has proposed a cash dividend of NT$5.2 per share. Lion Travel said net profit reached NT$455 million last year, or earnings per share of NT$6.5, with revenue increasing 22.4 percent year-on-year to NT$26.78 billion. The company attributed the growth to 15.65 million Taiwanese making overseas trips last year, up 7.3 percent from a year earlier. Efforts to adjust its product portfolio and marketing strategy, as well as to develop overseas markets and additional distribution channels, also helped generate the improved results, Lion Travel said. The company’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 15 is to vote on the dividend proposal.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Win’s net profit jumps 20.9%
Win Semiconductors Corp (穩懋), the world’s largest pure-play gallium arsenide foundry, on Thursday posted net profit of NT$3.76 billion for last year, up 20.9 percent from NT$3.11 billion in 2016. That translated into earnings per share of NT$9.34, from NT$6.04. Revenue grew 25.48 percent to NT$17.09 billion from NT$13.62 billion. The company’s board also proposed a cash dividend of NT$7, which represents a payout ratio of 74.95 percent. The company’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 15 is to vote on the proposal.
MANUFACTURING
Optimax forgoes dividend
Optimax Technology Corp (力特光電), a supplier of polarizing films that are a central component of LCD technology, has decided not to distribute a dividend to shareholders this year, as the company reported a net loss of NT$213 million for last year, or a loss per share of NT$0.66. The regulator might ban margin trading in Optimax shares next month at the earliest, as the firm’s net value has fallen below the threshold of NT$5 per share to NT$4.68, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported.
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
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
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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