FINANCE
Fubon income falls 83%
Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) yesterday reported a net income of NT$620 million (US$20.08 million) for last month, down 83 percent from a year earlier, as its flagship company suffered losses. Fubon Life Insurance Co (富邦人壽) posted a net loss of NT$1.05 billion, compared with a net income of NT$1.43 billion a year earlier, due to lower investment gains amid a global equity market rout and a stronger New Taiwan dollar vis a vis the US dollar. For the first 11 months of the year, Fubon Financial Holding saw its net income rise 5 percent year-on-year to NT$53.1 billion. Earnings per share were NT$5.04 over the period, it said.
COMPONENTS
Lite-On revenue drops 5%
Electronics component supplier Lite-On Technology Corp (光寶科技) yesterday reported consolidated revenue of NT$16.73 billion for last month, down 4.94 percent from a year ago. The figures do not include its mobile phone camera module business, which it sold earlier this year, the company said in a statement. For the first 11 months of this year, sales totaled NT$191.95 billion, down 2.85 percent from a year earlier, it said. A company sales breakdown for last month showed that its information technology business contributed 65 percent to total sales, while optoelectronics and storage accounted for 15 percent each.
AUTOMOTIVE
Hiroca sales rise 14%
Automotive components maker Hiroca Holdings Ltd (廣華控股) yesterday reported consolidated sales of NT$808 million for last month, up 13.89 percent month-on-month and 4.49 percent year-on-year. Cumulative sales in the first 11 months of the year increased 3.84 percent from a year earlier to NT$7.49 billion. Hiroca, which produces automotive interior trim parts, as well as plastic, fabric and leather decorations, said that rising shipments to major automakers, especially the three major Japanese brands, boosted its sales last month. Japanese automakers Toyota Motor Corp, Honda Motor Co and Nissan Motor Co accounted for more than 70 percent of the company’s revenue last month, with the remainder from European and US brands, it said.
TECHNOLOGY
Megvii seeks funding
Megvii (曠視科技), the Beijing-based owner of facial recognition technology company Face++, is in discussions with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) and other investors as it seeks to raise at least US$500 million in new funding, according to people familiar with the matter. The company, which already counts Alibaba as a backer, is talking with Chinese private equity investors and is considering a valuation between US$3.5 billion and US$4 billion, the people said. The financing, which the firm hopes to close this month, would give Megvii ammunition to compete with local rival SenseTime Group Ltd (商湯科技), the people said.
BANKING
FTSE adds Shanghai bank
Shanghai Commercial and Savings Bank Ltd (SCSB, 上海商業儲蓄銀行) has been added to the FTSE TWSE Taiwan 50 Index after a quarterly index review, the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) said. Since its debut on Oct. 19, the bank has become one of the favorites of local and foreign institutional investors, who have bought a net 95 million of its shares as of Friday. Meanwhile, the FTSE has removed passive components maker Walsin Technology Corp (華新科技) from the Taiwan 50 Index. The index adjustments are to take effect on Saturday next week, the TWSE said.
BYPASSING CHINA TARIFFS: In the first five months of this year, Foxconn sent US$4.4bn of iPhones to the US from India, compared with US$3.7bn in the whole of last year Nearly all the iPhones exported by Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) from India went to the US between March and last month, customs data showed, far above last year’s average of 50 percent and a clear sign of Apple Inc’s efforts to bypass high US tariffs imposed on China. The numbers, being reported by Reuters for the first time, show that Apple has realigned its India exports to almost exclusively serve the US market, when previously the devices were more widely distributed to nations including the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. During March to last month, Foxconn, known as Hon Hai Precision Industry
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and the University of Tokyo (UTokyo) yesterday announced the launch of the TSMC-UTokyo Lab to promote advanced semiconductor research, education and talent development. The lab is TSMC’s first laboratory collaboration with a university outside Taiwan, the company said in a statement. The lab would leverage “the extensive knowledge, experience, and creativity” of both institutions, the company said. It is located in the Asano Section of UTokyo’s Hongo, Tokyo, campus and would be managed by UTokyo faculty, guided by directors from UTokyo and TSMC, the company said. TSMC began working with UTokyo in 2019, resulting in 21 research projects,
Taiwan’s property market is entering a freeze, with mortgage activity across the nation’s six largest cities plummeting in the first quarter, H&B Realty Co (住商不動產) said yesterday, citing mounting pressure on housing demand amid tighter lending rules and regulatory curbs. Mortgage applications in Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung totaled 28,078 from January to March, a sharp 36.3 percent decline from 44,082 in the same period last year, the nation’s largest real-estate brokerage by franchise said, citing data from the Joint Credit Information Center (JCIC, 聯徵中心). “The simultaneous decline across all six cities reflects just how drastically the market
Ashton Hall’s morning routine involves dunking his head in iced Saratoga Spring Water. For the company that sells the bottled water — Hall’s brand of choice for drinking, brushing his teeth and submerging himself — that is fantastic news. “We’re so thankful to this incredible fitness influencer called Ashton Hall,” Saratoga owner Primo Brands Corp’s CEO Robbert Rietbroek said on an earnings call after Hall’s morning routine video went viral. “He really helped put our brand on the map.” Primo Brands, which was not affiliated with Hall when he made his video, is among the increasing number of companies benefiting from influencer
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