FOORWEAR
Sports Gear seeks listing
Sports Gear Co Ltd (志強國際) is applying for a listing on the nation’s main board, the Taiwan Stock Exchange said yesterday. The Cayman Islands-registered company mainly produces athletic footwear, casual shoes and balls, the exchange said. With a paid-in capital of NT$1.74 billion (US$60.7 million), the company reported earnings per share (EPS) of NT$0.94 in the first three quarters of this year. Its EPS in the past three years were NT$6.02 last year, NT$8.09 in 2018 and NT$12.37 in 2017, the exchange said. Separately, the exchange approved a listing application by Acer Inc (宏碁) subsidiary Weblink International Inc (展碁國際), which provides marketing and membership management software services, it said. The company reported EPS of NT$1.94 in the first three quarters, up 70 percent from the same period last year.
REAL ESTATE
Hiyes revenue soars 15.8%
Hiyes International Co Ltd (海悅國際開發), the nation’s largest housing broker, yesterday reported that revenue last month grew 15.8 percent month-on-month and 40.84 percent year-on-year to NT$439 million, a monthly record for the company. The firm attributed the growth to launches of new housing projects by developers across the nation. It has risen on the tide of a booming market through various strategies, it said. In the first 11 months of the year, cumulative revenue surged 134.34 percent from a year earlier to NT$3.13 billion, the company said.
TECHNOLOGY
Adata revenue grows 8%
Adata Technology Co (威剛科技), the world’s second-largest memory module supplier, yesterday said its revenue last month increased 8.06 percent to NT$3.12 billion from October, benefiting from a steady demand for memory products. On an annual basis, last month’s revenue rose 23.4 percent and hit the second-highest level this year, it said. In the first 11 months, Adata saw revenue total NT$29.28 billion, up 26.43 percent from the same period last year.
ECONOMY
Vouchers expire this month
Nearly 3 percent of people who are eligible to purchase Triple Stimulus Vouchers, have not yet done so, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Wednesday, adding that the vouchers can only be used until Dec. 31. The government launched the voucher program on July 15 to encourage consumption amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In a statement, the ministry said that more than 23 million people, or more than 97 percent of those eligible, have bought the vouchers.
FINANCE
Vanguard loses mandate
Vanguard Group Inc lost a mandate to run at least US$590 million in Taiwanese government pension and insurance assets due to its weak performance. Assets managed by Vanguard under an Asia-Pacific mixed index mandate were redeemed prematurely due to long-term underperformance, the Bureau of Labor Funds said on its Web site on Tuesday in its October update. The Vanguard funds returned about 13 percent since inception in August 2016, about half the benchmark’s 26 percent gain, according to the previous month’s statement. With the ouster of Vanguard, New York-based BlackRock Inc is now the main manager of Taiwan’s Asia-Pacific stock mandate, the bureau said. It oversaw more than US$700 million as of Oct. 31, the statements showed.
Japanese technology giant Softbank Group Corp said Tuesday it has sold its stake in Nvidia Corp, raising US$5.8 billion to pour into other investments. It also reported its profit nearly tripled in the first half of this fiscal year from a year earlier. Tokyo-based Softbank said it sold the stake in Silicon Vally-based Nvidia last month, a move that reflects its shift in focus to OpenAI, owner of the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT. Softbank reported its profit in the April-to-September period soared to about 2.5 trillion yen (about US$13 billion). Its sales for the six month period rose 7.7 percent year-on-year
CRESTING WAVE: Companies are still buying in, but the shivers in the market could be the first signs that the AI wave has peaked and the collapse is upon the world Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reported a new monthly record of NT$367.47 billion (US$11.85 billion) in consolidated sales for last month thanks to global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Last month’s figure represented 16.9 percent annual growth, the slowest pace since February last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 11 percent. Cumulative sales in the first 10 months of the year grew 33.8 percent year-on-year to NT$3.13 trillion, a record for the same period in the company’s history. However, the slowing growth in monthly sales last month highlights uncertainty over the sustainability of the AI boom even as
JITTERS: Nexperia has a 20 percent market share for chips powering simpler features such as window controls, and changing supply chains could take years European carmakers are looking into ways to scratch components made with parts from China, spooked by deepening geopolitical spats playing out through chipmaker Nexperia BV and Beijing’s export controls on rare earths. To protect operations from trade ructions, several automakers are pushing major suppliers to find permanent alternatives to Chinese semiconductors, people familiar with the matter said. The industry is considering broader changes to its supply chain to adapt to shifting geopolitics, Europe’s main suppliers lobby CLEPA head Matthias Zink said. “We had some indications already — questions like: ‘How can you supply me without this dependency on China?’” Zink, who also
Tax revenue from securities transactions last month increased 41.9 percent from a year earlier to NT$30.3 billion (US$975.8 million), rising on an annual basis for the third consecutive month and marking the highest for the month of October as Taiwanese stocks continued to perform strongly, data released by the Ministry of Finance showed yesterday. Last month, the TAIEX surged 2,412.81 points, or 9.34 percent, marking its largest-ever monthly rise for October as market sentiment was buoyed by a nearly 15 percent gain in contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which accounts for more than 40 percent of the
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