Dr Wu Skincare Co Ltd (達爾膚生醫科技) yesterday said that its board of directors has approved a proposal to distribute a cash dividend of NT$10 per common share from its capital surplus, as it is not planning large investments next year.
The proposed dividend, if approved by shareholders on Feb. 18, would suggest a dividend yield of 15.15 percent based on yesterday’s closing price of NT$66.
The cash dividend would be the company’s first derived from a capital surplus since it was listed on the Taipei Exchange in 2016.
The company said it expects to pay a total cash dividend of NT$450 million (US$14.9 million) in March.
As of the end of September, the company’s capital surplus totaled about NT$1.1 billion.
“We used to hold a large amount of cash … as we aimed to expand our business. However, we could not find the right investment projects, even though we did a lot of research,” Dr Wu chairman Eric Wu (吳奕叡) told a media briefing in Taipei.
The company is not planning any mergers and acquisitions next year, but would continue investing in China using a different approach, Wu said.
Dr Wu used to operate a fully owned subsidiary in Shanghai, but sold it because of financial considerations. Last month, it set up Dr Wu Skincare (Jiangsu) Co Ltd (江蘇達爾膚), a joint venture in which it holds a 51 percent stake, he said.
“The beauty product market in China changes so fast. Online marketing promotion has become more expensive than before, but less effective,” Wu said. “We are still looking for an effective way to attract Chinese customers.”
Dr Wu’s cumulative revenue in the first 11 months of this year grew 6.2 percent annually to NT$954 million on stable sales in Taiwan.
Revenue for the whole of this year is forecast to surpass NT$1 billion, which would be less than the company’s record revenue of NT$1.15 billion in 2016, but more than for the past two years, thanks to an improved pricing strategy and product distribution programs, Wu said.
Profit, which grew 111 percent annually to NT$110 million in the first three quarters, would likely be boosted this quarter by one-time disposal gains from the Shanghai unit, he said.
Next year, sales in Taiwan are expected to advance 10 percent year-on-year due to the company’s collaboration with e-commerce companies such as Momo.com Inc (富邦媒體), Yahoo-Kimo (雅虎奇摩) and Shopee Taiwan Co Ltd (樂購蝦皮), Wu said.
China’s economic planning agency yesterday outlined details of measures aimed at boosting the economy, but refrained from major spending initiatives. The piecemeal nature of the plans announced yesterday appeared to disappoint investors who were hoping for bolder moves, and the Shanghai Composite Index gave up a 10 percent initial gain as markets reopened after a weeklong holiday to end 4.59 percent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dived 9.41 percent. Chinese National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Zheng Shanjie (鄭珊潔) said the government would frontload 100 billion yuan (US$14.2 billion) in spending from the government’s budget for next year in addition
Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) suffered its biggest stock decline in more than a month after the company unveiled new artificial intelligence (AI) chips, but did not provide hoped-for information on customers or financial performance. The stock slid 4 percent to US$164.18 on Thursday, the biggest single-day drop since Sept. 3. Shares of the company remain up 11 percent this year. AMD has emerged as the biggest contender to Nvidia Corp in the lucrative market of AI processors. The company’s latest chips would exceed some capabilities of its rival, AMD chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) said at an event hosted by
Sales RecORD: Hon Hai’s consolidated sales rose by about 20 percent last quarter, while Largan, another Apple supplier, saw quarterly sales increase by 17 percent IPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Saturday reported its highest-ever quarterly sales for the third quarter on the back of solid global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) globally, said it posted NT$1.85 trillion (US$57.93 billion) in consolidated sales in the July-to-September quarter, up 19.46 percent from the previous quarter and up 20.15 percent from a year earlier. The figure beat the previous third-quarter high of NT$1.74 trillion recorded in 2022, company data showed. Due to rising demand for AI, Hon Hai said its cloud and networking division enjoyed strong sales
TECH JUGGERNAUT: TSMC shares have more than doubled since ChatGPT’s launch in late 2022, as demand for cutting-edge artificial intelligence chips remains high Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday posted a better-than-expected 39 percent rise in quarterly revenue, assuaging concerns that artificial intelligence (AI) hardware spending is beginning to taper off. The main chipmaker for Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc reported third-quarter sales of NT$759.69 billion (US$23.6 billion), compared with the average analyst projection of NT$748 billion. For last month alone, TSMC reported revenue jumped 39.6 percent year-on-year to NT$251.87 billion. Taiwan’s largest company is to disclose its full third-quarter earnings on Thursday next week and update its outlook. Hsinchu-based TSMC produces the cutting-edge chips needed to train AI. The company now makes more
RSS