HANDSETS
Silitech to reduce capital
Handset keypad supplier Silitech Technology Corp’s (閎暉) board on Monday approved a proposal to reduce the company’s capital by 66.55 percent to refund cash to shareholders and adjust the company’s capital structure to increase returns on equity. In a regulatory filing, Silitech said it would cut its capital by NT$1.19 billion (US$38.7 million) by canceling 119.38 million shares and return NT$6.66 per share to shareholders. The company also decided not to propose distributing a cash dividend for last year because of losses, although net losses per share narrowed from NT$0.46 in 2017 to NT$0.19 last year. Revenue decreased 1.49 percent year-on-year to NT$2.25 billion.
COMPUTERS
Getac to pay NT$3 dividend
Rugged PC vendor Getac Technology Corp (神基) said its board of directors yesterday approved a proposal to distribute a cash dividend of NT$3 per share. The dividend payout was based on the company’s earnings of NT$2.21 billion last year, or earnings per share of NT$3.83, the company said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The proposed cash dividend translates to a payout ratio of 78.33 percent and a dividend yield of 6.41 percent based on stock’s closing price of NT$46.8 yesterday. The dividend proposal is to be voted on at the annual shareholders’ meeting on May 31.
PHARMACEUTICALS
SynCore enrolls US patient
SynCore Biotechnology Co (杏國新藥) yesterday announced that SB05PC, its new pancreatic cancer drug, has enrolled its first patient in the US for a global phase III clinical trial across seven nations. The company said that progress made with the US Food and Drug Administration would help with its approval efforts in other markets and that SB05PC has been granted orphan drug status due to a lack of available alternative second-line treatments. Last month, the company enrolled patients in Hungary, Israel and France. It said that its patient enrollment is on track and expected to produce an interim report in the second half of this year.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Milestone payment received
Anxo Pharmaceutical Co Ltd (瑩碩生技) has received its first milestone payment from its unidentified Chinese partner in Guangzhou, the company said yesterday. Anxo did not reveal the amount of the milestone payment. The company has inked collaborations with six Chinese companies to work on 18 new drug projects and they are aiming to take advantage of ongoing regulatory reforms in China to expand the availability of generic drugs in the nation. Drug developers are heading toward a cutthroat battle to make it into the top three for a certain drug class as China adopts harmonized approval standards and requirements. Anxo said that it and the Guangzhou-based company are working on two cardiovascular drugs and a pediatric respiratory drug with a combined potential market value of about 10.5 billion yuan (US$1.57 billion).
MONEY SUPPLY
M1B grows 6.55 percent
Last month’s M1B — a measure of money in circulation — grew 6.55 percent year-on-year, accelerating from a 5.69 percent increase the previous month, while M2 — which includes the M1B, time deposits, foreign-currency deposits and mutual funds — increased 3.14 percent from 3.07 percent the previous month, mainly because of growth in bank loans, investments and net foreign capital inflows, the central bank said in a statement yesterday.
FALLING BEHIND: Samsung shares have declined more than 20 percent this year, as the world’s largest chipmaker struggles in key markets and plays catch-up to rival SK Hynix Samsung Electronics Co is laying off workers in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand as part of a plan to reduce its global headcount by thousands of jobs, sources familiar with the situation said. The layoffs could affect about 10 percent of its workforces in those markets, although the numbers for each subsidiary might vary, said one of the sources, who asked not to be named because the matter is private. Job cuts are planned for other overseas subsidiaries and could reach 10 percent in certain markets, the source said. The South Korean company has about 147,000 in staff overseas, more than half
Taipei is today suspending its US$2.5 trillion stock market as Super Typhoon Krathon approaches Taiwan with strong winds and heavy rain. The nation is not conducting securities, currency or fixed-income trading, statements from its stock and currency exchanges said. Yesterday, schools and offices were closed in several cities and counties in southern and eastern Taiwan, including in the key industrial port city of Kaohsiung. Taiwan, which started canceling flights, ship sailings and some train services earlier this week, has wind and rain advisories in place for much of the island. It regularly experiences typhoons, and in July shut offices and schools as
An Indian factory producing iPhone components resumed work yesterday after a fire that halted production — the third blaze to disrupt Apple Inc’s local supply chain since the start of last year. Local industrial behemoth Tata Group’s plant in Tamil Nadu, which was shut down by the unexplained fire on Saturday, is a key linchpin of Apple’s nascent supply chain in the country. A spokesperson for subsidiary Tata Electronics Pvt yesterday said that the company would restart work in “many areas of the facility today.” “We’ve been working diligently since Saturday to support our team and to identify the cause of the fire,”
TECH PARTNERSHIP: The deal with Arizona-based Amkor would provide TSMC with advanced packing and test capacities, a requirement to serve US customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is collaborating with Amkor Technology Inc to provide local advanced packaging and test capacities in Arizona to address customer requirements for geographical flexibility in chip manufacturing. As part of the agreement, TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, would contract turnkey advanced packaging and test services from Amkor at their planned facility in Peoria, Arizona, a joint statement released yesterday said. TSMC would leverage these services to support its customers, particularly those using TSMC’s advanced wafer fabrication facilities in Phoenix, Arizona, it said. The companies would jointly define the specific packaging technologies, such as TSMC’s Integrated
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