Cosmetics maker Thai Ho Group Inc (太和生技集團) yesterday announced plans to list its shares on the Taipei Exchange before the end of this year, advancing from the preparatory Emerging Stock Board.
Sales this year are expected to rise 20 percent annually on increasing orders from Chinese brands, Thai Ho chief operating officer Michael Kuo (郭靖凱) said, adding that China is forecast to account for 50 percent of its overall revenue, up from 41.64 percent.
The company has deepened its ties with Chinese brands since the second quarter of last year, resulting in a 14.21 percent annual increase in sales from China, Kuo said.
The Chinese market for cosmetics is expected to swell from 300 billion yuan (US$47.77 billion) in 2015 to 500 billion yuan next year, he said.
Thai Ho, which began carrying out plans to build a cosmetics manufacturing plant in Okinawa, Japan, with a ￥200 million (US$1.88 million) grant from the Japanese government last year, is now looking for alternative arrangements, Kuo said.
He said that Okinawa is geographically too far away from Japan’s main markets, and the company has formed a contract manufacturing alliance with three Tokyo-based partners.
“We have turned over our equipment and cosmetic formulations to our partners, which would oversee Japan-based production,” Kuo said.
In the long run the company would set up an equity partnership with the three Tokyo-based firms, he added.
Thai Ho reported that revenue for last year grew 12.6 percent to a record NT$1.33 billion, while net income rose 127.39 percent to NT$40.86 million.
The company said that it has excluded NT$35.9 million in profits to reflect potential patent infringement related damages.
The company plans to distribute a cash dividend of NT$0.6 per share, equivalent to a payout ratio of 35.7 percent based on last year’s earnings per share of NT$1.68.
In Italy’s storied gold-making hubs, jewelers are reworking their designs to trim gold content as they race to blunt the effect of record prices and appeal to shoppers watching their budgets. Gold prices hit a record high on Thursday, surging near US$5,600 an ounce, more than double a year ago as geopolitical concerns and jitters over trade pushed investors toward the safe-haven asset. The rally is putting undue pressure on small artisans as they face mounting demands from customers, including international brands, to produce cheaper items, from signature pieces to wedding rings, according to interviews with four independent jewelers in Italy’s main
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has talked up the benefits of a weaker yen in a campaign speech, adopting a tone at odds with her finance ministry, which has refused to rule out any options to counter excessive foreign exchange volatility. Takaichi later softened her stance, saying she did not have a preference for the yen’s direction. “People say the weak yen is bad right now, but for export industries, it’s a major opportunity,” Takaichi said on Saturday at a rally for Liberal Democratic Party candidate Daishiro Yamagiwa in Kanagawa Prefecture ahead of a snap election on Sunday. “Whether it’s selling food or
CONCERNS: Tech companies investing in AI businesses that purchase their products have raised questions among investors that they are artificially propping up demand Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Saturday said that the company would be participating in OpenAI’s latest funding round, describing it as potentially “the largest investment we’ve ever made.” “We will invest a great deal of money,” Huang told reporters while visiting Taipei. “I believe in OpenAI. The work that they do is incredible. They’re one of the most consequential companies of our time.” Huang did not say exactly how much Nvidia might contribute, but described the investment as “huge.” “Let Sam announce how much he’s going to raise — it’s for him to decide,” Huang said, referring to OpenAI
Nvidia Corp’s negotiations to invest as much as US$100 billion in OpenAI have broken down, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported, exposing a potential rift between two of the most powerful companies in the artificial intelligence (AI) industry. The discussions stalled after some inside Nvidia expressed concerns about the transaction, the WSJ reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the deliberations. OpenAI makes the popular chatbot ChatGPT, while Nvidia dominates the market for AI processors that help develop such software. The companies announced the agreement in September last year, saying at the time that they had signed a letter of intent for a strategic
RSS