INVESTMENT
Eight projects approved
The Investment Commission yesterday approved eight investment projects totaling NT$25.8 billion (US$885.81 million): two foreign direct investment projects in Taiwan, one investment project in the US and five investment projects in China. The foreign projects are in renewable energy, with GRP III Taiwan UK Ltd buying NT$7.6 billion of stock in New Green Power Co (永鑫能源), a photovoltaic systems company, and Germany-based Yunlin Holding GMB investing NT$2.8 billion in Yunneng Wind Power Co (允能風力發電), the developer of a Yunlin offshore wind farm, the commission said. Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團) also gained approval to invest NT$5.46 billion in its US-based subsidiary, Formosa Industries Corp (台塑工業美國), it added.
SHIPPING
Yang Ming names new head
Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp (陽明海運) yesterday announced that its board of directors approved the appointment of National Development Council Deputy Minister Cheng Chen-mount (鄭貞茂) as company chairman and CEO from today. Cheng replaces Bronson Hsieh (謝志堅), who retired yesterday. Cheng in 2018 joined the board as a representative of the National Development Fund, which is Yang Ming’s second-largest shareholder, the company said in a statement, adding that Cheng has become familiar with the container shipper’s operations and strategies over the past two years.
ELECTRONICS
Unity Opto to be delisted
LED company Unity Opto Technology Co (東貝光電) yesterday said that its shares are to be delisted from the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Nov. 10, as its book value has fallen into negative territory, a company regulatory filing showed. Unity Opto’s book value fell to minus-NT$5.27 per share by the end of last year due to chronic losses. The debt-ridden firm last year posted losses of NT$7.31 billion, or losses per share of NT$15.86. The company has yet to submit financial statements for this year to regulators.
AUTOMAKERS
Hua-chuang’s Huang retires
Hua-chuang Automobile Information Technical Center (華創車電) vice president Huang Chen-hung (黃振宏) has retired, parent company Yulon Motor Co (裕隆汽車) said in a statement. Hua-chuang Automobile is 100 percent owned by Yulon Motor. Huang’s retirement preceded the creation of an electric-vehicle venture between Yulon Motor and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密). Hon Hai plans to unveil an outlook and blueprint for the venture on Oct. 16, while Yulon Motor said that the venture is to begin by the end of this year.
ELECTRONICS
Sony unveils 5G Xperia 5 II
Sony Mobile Taiwan has launched its flagship 5G Xperia 5 II smartphone in Taiwan for the price of NT$29,990. The Xperia 5 II builds on the success of the Xperia 1 II 5G, Sony Mobile Taiwan president Jonathan Lin (林志遠) told a launch ceremony on Monday. “The Xperia 1 II 5G was the best-selling flagship Android phone in June, July and August,” Lin said, adding that the two phones’ features mostly share the same specifications, while the Xperia 5 II is smaller and has a 6.1-inch screen. Product marketing manager Jerry Peng (彭浩正) said that the camera can take a string of 20 photographs auto-focused on the eyes, to spontaneously capture the subject’s emotions.
The New Taiwan dollar is on the verge of overtaking the yuan as Asia’s best carry-trade target given its lower risk of interest-rate and currency volatility. A strategy of borrowing the New Taiwan dollar to invest in higher-yielding alternatives has generated the second-highest return over the past month among Asian currencies behind the yuan, based on the Sharpe ratio that measures risk-adjusted relative returns. The New Taiwan dollar may soon replace its Chinese peer as the region’s favored carry trade tool, analysts say, citing Beijing’s efforts to support the yuan that can create wild swings in borrowing costs. In contrast,
Nvidia Corp’s demand for advanced packaging from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) remains strong though the kind of technology it needs is changing, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said yesterday, after he was asked whether the company was cutting orders. Nvidia’s most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chip, Blackwell, consists of multiple chips glued together using a complex chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) advanced packaging technology offered by TSMC, Nvidia’s main contract chipmaker. “As we move into Blackwell, we will use largely CoWoS-L. Of course, we’re still manufacturing Hopper, and Hopper will use CowoS-S. We will also transition the CoWoS-S capacity to CoWos-L,” Huang said
VERTICAL INTEGRATION: The US fabless company’s acquisition of the data center manufacturer would not affect market competition, the Fair Trade Commission said The Fair Trade Commission has approved Advanced Micro Devices Inc’s (AMD) bid to fully acquire ZT International Group Inc for US$4.9 billion, saying it would not hamper market competition. As AMD is a fabless company that designs central processing units (CPUs) used in consumer electronics and servers, while ZT is a data center manufacturer, the vertical integration would not affect market competition, the commission said in a statement yesterday. ZT counts hyperscalers such as Microsoft Corp, Amazon.com Inc and Google among its major clients and plays a minor role in deciding the specifications of data centers, given the strong bargaining power of
TARIFF SURGE: The strong performance could be attributed to the growing artificial intelligence device market and mass orders ahead of potential US tariffs, analysts said The combined revenue of companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange and the Taipei Exchange for the whole of last year totaled NT$44.66 trillion (US$1.35 trillion), up 12.8 percent year-on-year and hit a record high, data compiled by investment consulting firm CMoney showed on Saturday. The result came after listed firms reported a 23.92 percent annual increase in combined revenue for last month at NT$4.1 trillion, the second-highest for the month of December on record, and posted a 15.63 percent rise in combined revenue for the December quarter at NT$12.25 billion, the highest quarterly figure ever, the data showed. Analysts attributed the
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