PROPERTY
Office space in demand
The take-up rate of grade A office space in Taichung rose to 80 percent last year, from 68 percent in 2016, as demand increased, a survey conducted by Colliers International Taichung branch (高力國際) showed yesterday. Because the luxury housing market remains sluggish, real-estate funds have been investing in commercial property, the international property broker said. A total of 54,923 ping (181,564m2) of grade A office space is to join the market in central Taichung this year, including a new building owned by CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控) and Taiwan Life Insurance Co (台灣人壽), the broker said.
BIOPHARMA
ITRI, Merck to collaborate
The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) yesterday said it has inked a memorandum of understanding with Merck KGaA on a collaboration program to cultivate professionals in the biopharma sector. The program, to be officially launched in May, is expected to help expand the global market share of the local biopharma industry and create new business opportunities in the precision medicine market, the ITRI said in a statement. As part of the project, Merck is to introduce manufacturing technologies for antibody-drug conjugates, helping Taiwanese companies to enter advanced international pharmaceutical markets. The global biopharma market is estimated to be worth US$278 billion by 2020, the ITRI said.
HOSPITALITY
FDC dividend proposed
Hotel and restaurant operator FDC International Hotels Corp (FDC, 雲品國際) yesterday said its board has approved a plan to distribute a cash dividend of NT$2.75 per share based on last year’s earnings. The hotelier posted NT$228 million (US$7.82 million) in net income for last year, or earnings per share of NT$3.48, the company said in a statement last week. The result represented a 19 percent year-on-year increase as its strategy to acquire restaurants and strengthen its service quality paid off, the statement said.
SOLAR CELLS
E-Ton to reduce capital
Solar cell maker E-Ton Solar Technology Co (益通光能) yesterday said its board has approved a plan to reduce its share capital by 59 percent to improve its financial structure. After the reduction, E-Ton would have share capital of NT$3.19 billion. The company has accumulated losses of NT$6.75 billion. E-Ton plans to allocate the NT$2.15 billion surplus to reduce its losses to NT$4.6 billion. Last year, E-Ton lost NT$2.62 billion, marking its ninth consecutive unprofitable year.
MEMORY CHIPS
Macronix touts NOR flash
Memorychip maker Macronix International Co Ltd (旺宏) yesterday said TMicroelectronics is using its NOR flash memory for the company’s new STM32L4+ microcontroller Discovery kits and evaluation boards. Macronix said its latest MX25LM 8-bit I/O Series NOR flash series meets the growing demand for “instant-on” performance and real-time system responsiveness in automotive, industrial and consumer applications. ST’s new ultra-low-power, high-performance STM32L4+ is equipped to operate as the central controller in a full range of fitness bands, “smart” watches, medical equipment, “smart” meters and industrial sensors which require sophisticated functions, instant responses and minimal downtime for battery charging, the company said.
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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