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.
SEEKING CLARITY: Washington should not adopt measures that create uncertainties for ‘existing semiconductor investments,’ TSMC said referring to its US$165 billion in the US Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) told the US that any future tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors could reduce demand for chips and derail its pledge to increase its investment in Arizona. “New import restrictions could jeopardize current US leadership in the competitive technology industry and create uncertainties for many committed semiconductor capital projects in the US, including TSMC Arizona’s significant investment plan in Phoenix,” the chipmaker wrote in a letter to the US Department of Commerce. TSMC issued the warning in response to a solicitation for comments by the department on a possible tariff on semiconductor imports by US President Donald Trump’s
The government has launched a three-pronged strategy to attract local and international talent, aiming to position Taiwan as a new global hub following Nvidia Corp’s announcement that it has chosen Taipei as the site of its Taiwan headquarters. Nvidia cofounder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Monday last week announced during his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei that the Nvidia Constellation, the company’s planned Taiwan headquarters, would be located in the Beitou-Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區) in Taipei. Huang’s decision to establish a base in Taiwan is “primarily due to Taiwan’s talent pool and its strength in the semiconductor
An earnings report from semiconductor giant and artificial intelligence (AI) bellwether Nvidia Corp takes center stage for Wall Street this week, as stocks hit a speed bump of worries over US federal deficits driving up Treasury yields. US equities pulled back last week after a torrid rally, as investors turned their attention to tax and spending legislation poised to swell the US government’s US$36 trillion in debt. Long-dated US Treasury yields rose amid the fiscal worries, with the 30-year yield topping 5 percent and hitting its highest level since late 2023. Stocks were dealt another blow on Friday when US President Donald
UNCERTAINTY: Investors remain worried that trade negotiations with Washington could go poorly, given Trump’s inconsistency on tariffs in his second term, experts said The consumer confidence index this month fell for a ninth consecutive month to its lowest level in 13 months, as global trade uncertainties and tariff risks cloud Taiwan’s economic outlook, a survey released yesterday by National Central University found. The biggest decline came from the timing for stock investments, which plunged 11.82 points to 26.82, underscoring bleak investor confidence, it said. “Although the TAIEX reclaimed the 21,000-point mark after the US and China agreed to bury the hatchet for 90 days, investors remain worried that the situation would turn sour later,” said Dachrahn Wu (吳大任), director of the university’s Research Center for
RSS