ELECTRONICS
Antec cancels shares
Antec Inc (安鈦克), one of the nation’s leading computer peripheral makers, yesterday announced a share capital reduction by canceling 1.19 million common shares, or 3.53 percent of its total shares in circulation, to pare down accumulated losses. The company is then to exercise another 10.89 percent capital reduction to adjust its capital structure and refund NT$1 per share to shareholders, Antec said. Through the two rounds of capital reduction, the company’s capitalization would drop from NT$337 million to NT$290 million. Antec said it would not distribute cash dividends for last year.
SILICONE
Topco announces dividend
Silicone products supplier Topco Technologies Corp (崇越電) yesterday said that it plans to distribute a cash dividend of NT$5.1 per common share based on last year’s earnings per share of NT$7.23, representing a payout ratio of 70.54 percent. With the company’s shares closing at NT$70.3 in Taipei trading on Wednesday last week, the proposal suggests a dividend yield of 7.25 percent. Topco’s revenue grew 11.94 percent to NT$8.6 billion last year (US$278.95 million), with net profit of NT$463 million.
DINING
Caesar Banqiao drops prices
Caesar Park Banciao (板橋凱薩飯店) yesterday launched a nearly 50 percent discount at its buffet restaurant Bon Appetit (朋派) on weekdays to attract more guests. Lunch charges are to drop from NT$980 per head to NT$490 on weekdays during the promotion period, which is to last until the end of next month, public relations officials said.
ELECTRONICS
Sampo picks new president
Consumer electronics maker Sampo Corp (聲寶) yesterday announced the appointment of Hsu Ching-chao (許經朝) as its new president, replacing Chen Lian-chuen (陳連春). Hsu was formerly president of U-Lite Electric Co Ltd (上新聯晴), a consumer electronics retail chain owned by Sampo that halted operations in October 2017. The personnel adjustment took immediate effect, the company said.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Taiwan Liposome signs deal
Taiwan Liposome Co (TLC, 台灣微脂體) on Sunday announced that it has signed a commercialization partnership with Hong Kong Sansheng Medical Ltd (香港三生製藥). Under the agreement, Taiwan Liposome grants Sansheng Medical the exclusive right to market two liposomal products utilizing TLC’s NanoX technology platform in China, it said in a regulatory filing. Taiwan Liposome could receive up to US$25 million in payment from Sansheng Medical, the filing said. The company’s revenue grew 25.56 percent to NT$62.32 million last year, but it remained unprofitable with a net loss of NT$901 million.
ELECTRIC VEHICLES
More Gogoros sent to Europe
A sharing service using Gogoro Inc’s (睿能創意) electric scooters is expanding in Berlin, Paris and Madrid, service provider Coup Mobility GmbH said. Five hundred more Gogoro scooters are to join the Coup e-scooter fleets in those cities this year, raising the total to 1,500 Gogoro e-scooters in Berlin, 2,200 in Paris and 1,350 in Madrid, Coup CEO Bernd Schmaul said on Thursday last week. After the expansion, Paris is to have the highest concentration of Gogoro vehicles, with 29 per square kilometer, followed by 19 in Madrid and 16 in Berlin, Schmaul said.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said it plans to ship its new 1 megawatt charging systems for electric trucks and buses in the first half of next year at the earliest. The new charging piles, which deliver up to 1 megawatt of charging power, are designed for heavy-duty electric vehicles, and support a maximum current of 1,500 amperes and output of 1,250 volts, Delta said in a news release. “If everything goes smoothly, we could begin shipping those new charging systems as early as in the first half of next year,” a company official said. The new
SK Hynix Inc warned of increased volatility in the second half of this year despite resilient demand for artificial intelligence (AI) memory chips from big tech providers, reflecting the uncertainty surrounding US tariffs. The company reported a better-than-projected 158 percent jump in March-quarter operating income, propelled in part by stockpiling ahead of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs. SK Hynix stuck with a forecast for a doubling in demand for the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) essential to Nvidia Corp’s AI accelerators, which in turn drive giant data centers built by the likes of Microsoft Corp and Amazon.com Inc. That SK Hynix is maintaining its
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