INSURANCE
Commission approves deal
The Fair Trade Commission yesterday approved Taishin Financial Holding Co’s (台新金控) acquisition of Prudential Life Insurance Co of Taiwan Inc (保德信人壽), saying that the combination of the two businesses would not harm market competition. Taishin Financial and its subsidiaries focus mainly on banking and securities businesses, while Prudential Life, the local unit of US-based Prudential Financial Inc, is in the life insurance business, therefore the deal is to help Taishin Financial enter the life insurance market and it would not be easy for it to block competitors, the commission said in a statement. Taishin Financial in August announced that it would purchase Prudential Life for NT$5.5 billion (US$190.77 million), saying that the insurer would be its third profit-making engine after Taishin International Bank (台新銀行) and Taishin Securities Co (台新證券).
MANUFACTURING
Largan to build plants
Despite weakness in global smartphone demand, handset camera lens maker Largan Precision Co (大立光) on Tuesday said that it is to build two plants in Taichung to expand its production capacity. In a statement posted to the Taiwan Stock Exchange, Largan said that it is investing about NT$6.06 billion to build two production sites in the city, where it is headquartered. The company has designated NT$3.82 billion to build one facility and NT$2.24 billion for the other, delegating two contractors for the development, it said. The land for the facilities has been purchased, it said. Construction at the sites is scheduled to be completed in 2024, Largan said.
APPAREL
Quang Viet revenue falls
Down jacket and garment maker Quang Viet Enterprise Co (廣越企業) on Monday reported that revenue for last month declined 45.19 percent from a year earlier to NT$783 million and fell 57.29 percent from September as it enters its traditional low season this quarter. Quang Viet president Charles Wu (吳朝筆) said that the revenue drop reflected a conservative attitude among its customers regarding orders amid the COVID-19 pandemic. “Orders are to decline in the fourth quarter of this year,” Wu wrote in an e-mailed statement. “However, as some brand clients have indicated that they will increase orders, we project our business would resume growth from the second quarter of next year.” In the first 10 months of this year, cumulative revenue totaled NT$11.22 billion, down 22.99 percent from a year earlier, the company said.
AIRLINES
StarLux eyes new routes
Starlux Airlines Co (星宇航空) has applied to the Civil Aeronautics Administration for 15 flight routes to North America, as well as Guam and Hawaii, company spokesman Nieh Kuo-wei (聶國維) said on Sunday. The routes are to Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Guam, Honolulu, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, Newark Airport in New Jersey, John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, Ontario, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle and Washington, Nieh said. The move is a preparatory market deployment, but whether the plan is realized depends on the market and delivery of planes the company has ordered, he said. If all goes well, the routes might be launched in 2022, he said. The airline would fly 17 wide-body A350 aircraft — nine A350-900s and eight A350-1000s — from Airbus SE on the routes, with the first scheduled to arrive in the fourth quarter of next year, he said.
DOLLAR CHALLENGE: BRICS countries’ growing share of global GDP threatens the US dollar’s dominance, which some member states seek to displace for world trade US president-elect Donald Trump on Saturday threatened 100 percent tariffs against a bloc of nine nations if they act to undermine the US dollar. His threat was directed at countries in the so-called BRICS alliance, which consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. Turkey, Azerbaijan and Malaysia have applied to become members and several other countries have expressed interest in joining. While the US dollar is by far the most-used currency in global business and has survived past challenges to its preeminence, members of the alliance and other developing nations say they are fed
LIMITED MEASURES: The proposed restrictions on Chinese chip exports are weaker than previously considered, following lobbying by major US firms, sources said US President Joe Biden’s administration is weighing additional curbs on sales of semiconductor equipment and artificial intelligence (AI) memory chips to China that would escalate the US crackdown on Beijing’s tech ambitions, but stop short of some stricter measures previously considered, said sources familiar with the matter. The restrictions could be unveiled as soon as next week, said the sources, who emphasized that the timing and contours of the rules have changed several times, and that nothing is final until they are published. The measures follow months of deliberations by US officials, negotiations with allies in Japan and the Netherlands, and
Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) yesterday said it expects any impact of new tariffs from US president-elect Donald Trump to hit the company less than its rivals, citing its global manufacturing footprint. Young Liu (劉揚偉), chairman of the contract manufacturer and key Apple Inc supplier, told reporters after a forum in Taipei that it saw the primary impact of any fresh tariffs falling on its clients because its business model is based on contract manufacturing. “Clients may decide to shift production locations, but looking at Foxconn’s global footprint, we are ahead. As a result, the impact on us is likely smaller compared to
TECH COMPETITION: The US restricted sales of two dozen types of manufacturing equipment and three software tools, and blacklisted 140 more Chinese entities US President Joe Biden’s administration unveiled new restrictions on China’s access to vital components for chips and artificial intelligence (AI), escalating a campaign to contain Beijing’s technological ambitions. The US Department of Commerce slapped additional curbs on the sale of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and chipmaking gear, including that produced by US firms at foreign facilities. It also blacklisted 140 more Chinese entities that it accused of acting on Beijing’s behalf, although it did not name them in an initial statement. Full details on the new sanctions and Entity List additions were to be published later yesterday, a US official said. The US “will
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