FINANCE
Yuanta fund axed
A total of 28,645 investors had as of Thursday not sold their units of an exchange-traded fund issued by Yuanta Securities Investment Trust Corp (元大投信), ahead of its delisting on Friday, data compiled by the Financial Supervisory Commission showed. The investors, holding 1.78 million units of the fund, would have to wait for Yuanta to liquidate the Yuanta S&P GSCI Crude Oil 2x Leveraged ER Futures fund on Tuesday next week for their assets to be returned, the financial regulator said. The commission and the Taiwan Stock Exchange last month announced that it would delist the fund, as its net asset value per unit plummeted more than 90 percent from an initial value of NT$20 in 2016, due to a plunge in global crude oil prices. The futures-based fund on Thursday reported net asset value per unit of NT$0.75.
RETAIL
Costco bulks up in Taichung
US chain store operator Costco Wholesale Corp is scheduled to open a new store in Taichung’s Beitun District (北屯) on Friday. The store, which is to offer an extended product portfolio including up-market items such as yachts, is to become the second Costco store in the city and the 14th in Taiwan. Featuring a car park for more than 810 vehicles, the new store is to offer more than 4,000 product categories, with almost half of the offered items being imported, on 3,500 ping (11,570m2) floor space, according to Costco President Taiwan Inc (好市多). The existing members-only Costco store in Taichung’s Nantun District (南屯) has more than 400,000 members, accounting for 15 percent of the retailer’s total membership in Taiwan and more sales than any other of its outlets in the nation.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last