ELECTRONICS
Hon Hai tightens measures
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday said that it is imposing stricter measures at its local facilities to protect employees amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The firm said that it had halted all transport between local plants and would hold all conferences and briefings via video or telephone. Temperatures are taken upon entry to company buildings and employees are required to wear masks indoors at all times, Hon Hai said. The company has also separated employees to work at different sites, while all outings are registered.
MEMORY
Adata to buy back 6m shares
Memory module supplier Adata Technology Co (威剛科技) yesterday said that its board of directors has decided to buy back 6 million shares from the open market during a two-month period through May 18. The repurchased shares would account for 2.68 percent of the company’s capital, Adata said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The firm plans to buy back the shares at between NT$27.5 and NT$101.3 each, with the total outlay capped at NT$5.9 billion (US$193.4 million), it said. The company plans to reward employees with the repurchased shares.
TRANSPORTATION
Hotai to acquire iRent stake
Hotai Finance Co (和潤企業) on Tuesday said that it plans to acquire a 50.82 percent stake in iRent, an electric vehicle sharing services provider operated by Hoing Mobility Service Co Ltd (和雲行動服務), for NT$310 million to expand its service portfolio. Hotai Finance, a vehicle loan and insurance service unit of Hotai Motor Co (和泰汽車), expects the investment to increase its growth momentum, considering iRent’s more than 330,000 members in Taiwan. Hotai Finance reported record-high revenue of NT$12.11 billion for last year, up 9.32 percent annually. Net income grew 27.07 percent to NT$2.24 billion, while earnings per share rose from NT$4.7 to NT$5.81, also a record high, company data showed.
CHIPMAKERS
GMT income hits record high
Global Mixed-mode Technology Inc (GMT, 致新科技), an analogue and mixed-signal IC developer, on Tuesday reported that its earnings for last year were its highest on record thanks to greater order transfers amid US-China trade tensions. Net income grew 58.2 percent from a year earlier to NT$750 million, or earnings per share of NT$8.74, it said. Revenue increased 27.03 percent to NT$5.67 billion, while gross margin increased 4.39 percentage points to 36.06 percent, it added. The company said that its board of directors has proposed distributing a cash dividend of NT$7.5 per share, suggesting a dividend yield of 8.72 percent based on its closing price of NT$86 yesterday.
MEDICAL
TaiDoc shipments skyrocket
Benefiting from a surge in demand for thermometers amid the COVID-19 pandemic, TaiDoc Technology Corp (泰博科技) reported that revenue in the first two months of this year totaled NT$741.75 million, up 15.26 percent from NT$643.54 million a year earlier. The company last month shipped 60,000 units, doubling shipments from January, and expects to ship 150,000 units this month, with at least 350,000 units shipped monthly starting next month. With robust shipments of forehead thermometers, along with a steady sales outlook for its blood glucose monitoring products, TaiDoc’s revenue and profit are expected to increase quarterly this year, analysts said.
Cairo’s new monorail slices across the city skyline, running above the familiar chaos of blaring horns and aging buses’ exhaust fumes that mark rush hour below. The US$4.5 billion monorail, opened this month, is among Egypt’s most prominent new transport projects, part of a debt-funded infrastructure drive criticized for sapping state finances while bringing limited benefits to most of the country’s 109 million people. “It feels like you’re in a different country,” said Ramy Sayed, a restaurant manager, aboard a driverless Innovia 300 train. “No noise, no traffic, we’re not used to this.” The eastern line runs 56km from the bustling middle-class
Taiwanese firms have increased investment in the Philippines in recent years as Manila’s ties with Washington deepen and global supply chains continue to shift away from China, an expert at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The Philippines had not been among Taiwanese investors’ top choices in Southeast Asia, CIER Taiwan ASEAN Studies Center director Kristy Hsu (徐遵慈) said at a seminar in Taipei. However, Taiwan’s investment in the country has grown significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching US $257 million last year, a high in recent years, she said. Although Taiwan’s total investment in the Philippines still lags
Intel Corp regards Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) as a longstanding partner, as the US chipmaker would continue outsourcing production of advanced chips to TSMC, Intel chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) said yesterday. “I don’t look at people as competitors. I look at the collaboration... Nvidia is also, you know, a good friend,” Tan told a news conference following his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei. “It’s a very trusted partnership for us... We are a big, top customer for them, and we’re going to continue doing that,” he said, referring to TSMC, the world’s largest foundry
Artificial intelligence (AI) agents would supplant smartphones as the center of people’s digital lives, fundamentally reshaping personal devices and driving a major computing upgrade cycle, Qualcomm Inc CEO Cristiano Amon said yesterday. In his keynote speech for this year’s Computex trade show in Taipei, Amon said that the rise of "agentic AI" — AI systems capable of reasoning, planning and carrying out tasks autonomously — would transform how people interact with technology across phones, PCs, vehicles and wearable devices. Describing the technology as the next major evolution in computing, Amon said that "2026 is the year of agents.” For decades, smartphones have sat
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