MANUFACTURING
FPG announces bonuses
Formosa Plastics Group (FPG, 台塑集團) is to distribute bonuses equivalent to 4.94 months’ salary to employees of its four major units ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, which starts on Jan. 24. This year’s amount is less than the 5.83 months’ salary that the group distributed last year, as earnings at the four FPG subsidiaries were generally lower than a year earlier due to the negative effect of the US-China trade dispute, the group said. The four subsidiaries reported average pre-tax earnings per share of NT$4.84 for last year, a preliminary estimate released by the group showed.
PETROCHEMICALS
CPDC to raise US$129m
China Petrochemical Development Corp (CPDC, 中石化) has priced its global depositary receipts (GDRs) at US$7.18 per unit. They are scheduled to be listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange on Monday. In a regulatory filing yesterday, the company said that it is issuing 180 million GDRs, representing 450 million common shares, as it aims to raise US$129.24 million to fund its investment in a subsidiary and build a chemical plant overseas. While the GDRs are expected to dilute earnings per share by 13.7 percent at most, “with respect to our financial structure, the increase in our own capital and lower debt ratio will be more beneficial to the group’s future operating performance and development,” CPDC said.
COMPUTERS
Getac sales rise 20.05%
Rugged PC vendor Getac Technology Corp (神基) yesterday reported that sales for last month increased 20.05 percent year-on-year to NT$2.44 billion (US$81.1 million). That helped increase its fourth-quarter sales to NT$7.34 billion, up 1.8 percent from the third quarter and 13.3 percent from a year earlier. Getac attributed the quarterly increase to contributions from government projects and expanded capacity at its Vietnamese manufacturing site. For the whole of last year, consolidated revenue reached NT$27.26 billion, up 10.41 percent from NT$24.69 billion in 2018.
COMPUTERS
Qisda revenue grows 8.8%
Qisda Corp (佳世達) on Monday reported that revenue for last month increased 8.8 percent year-on-year to NT$14.49 billion, bringing fourth-quarter revenue to a record high of NT$45.97 billion. Total revenue for last year also hit a new high at NT$169.86 billion, up 9.04 percent from 2018. The company attributed the increase to the strength of its business segments, as well as contributions from subsidiaries such as Aewin Technologies Co Ltd (其陽科技), Sysage Technology Co Ltd (聚碩), Topview Optronics Co (勝品電通) and Ace Pillar Co (羅昇). Qisda owns 51.26 percent and 20.49 percent stakes in Aewin and Ace Pillar respectively. The company last year acquired 35 percent and 20 percent shares in Sysage and Topview respectively.
TRADING
TAIEX continues slide
The TAIEX fell further yesterday, amid geopolitical tensions after the US killed Iran’s top military commander last week, but the main board recovered from an early low due to bargain hunting near the end of the session, dealers said. The bellwether electronics sector led the downturn on the broader market, while select old economy and financial stocks remained resilient, lending some support to the market, dealers said. The TAIEX ended down 73.04 points, or 0.61 percent, at 11,880.32. Turnover totaled NT$164.811 billion during the session.
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Huawei Technologies Co’s (華為) latest smartphones carry a version of the advanced made-in-China processor it revealed last year, results from an independent analysis showed. This underscored the Chinese company’s ability to sustain production of the controversial chip. The Pura 70 series unveiled last week sports the Kirin 9010 processor, research firm TechInsights found during a teardown of the device. This is a newer version of the Kirin 9000s, made by Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯) for the Mate 60 Pro, which had alarmed officials in Washington who thought a 7-nanometer chip was beyond China’s capabilities. Huawei has enjoyed a resurgence since
IMPROVEMENT EXPECTED: The company holds a cautiously optimistic view about this year, an official said, adding that an increase in wafer shipments is predicted United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) yesterday reported its weakest quarterly net profit in three years, which it attributed to a prolonged inventory correction. However, the company said it expects wafer shipments to grow about 3 percent this quarter as demand from communication and computer segments is to pick up from last quarter. Net profit plunged 35.4 percent to NT$10.46 billion (US$321.6 million) in the first quarter of the year, compared with NT$16.18 billion a year earlier, making it the worst quarterly performance since the first quarter of 2021. On a quarterly basis, net profit declined 20.8 percent from NT$13.2 billion, the Hsinchu-based