Taipei Financial Center Corp (TFCC, 台北金融大樓), which operates Taipei 101 — including its shopping mall, observatory deck and office space — aims to increase revenue to pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels this year after taking a hard hit from the crisis last year, it said on Thursday.
TFCC president Angela Chang (張振亞) announced the goal at a news conference, when the firm unveiled a 42 percent slump in net income to NT$1.27 billion (US$44.4 million) for last year.
The results translated into earnings per share of NT$0.87, below NT$1 for the first time in seven years, as foreign tourist arrivals virtually stopped amid COVID-19 border controls.
Photo: Chuang Shih-hsien, Taipei Times
Although the unfavorable effects of the pandemic linger, Taipei 101 is to strengthen its shopping mall operation and maintain full occupancy for its office space in the city’s central business district, where leasing demand is strong with no new space available in the near term, Chang said.
The observatory deck previously generated 30 percent of overall revenue, but made a meager contribution last year, she said.
TFCC has set a goal of growing the shopping mall’s operation by 10 percent this year, helped by a continued economic recovery, and collaborations with domestic and foreign luxury brands to bolster high-end consumption.
The mall hosted more than 200 shows and exhibitions last year to consolidate its leadership position in sales of luxury watches, jewelry and other items, raising revenue 30 percent and mitigating the effects of the pandemic to single-digit percentage points, TFCC said.
A 10 percent increase is viable given that spending by 300,000 members soared 55 percent last year, with one-third of them being active shoppers, the company said.
The skyscraper’s operator is to spend NT$1.5 billion renovating the complex’s exterior, as well as its shopping area and parking spaces to make them more welcoming, TFCC said.
Taipei 101 has been able to raise rents, with upward adjustments reaching 45 percent in some cases, thanks to its landmark status, TFCC said.
Elon Musk’s lieutenants have reached out to chip industry suppliers, including Applied Materials Inc, Tokyo Electron Ltd and Lam Research Corp, for his envisioned Terafab, early steps in an audacious and likely arduous attempt to break into the production of cutting-edge chips. Staff working for the joint venture between Tesla Inc and Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) have sought price quotes and delivery times for an array of chipmaking gear, people familiar with the matter said. In past weeks, they’ve contacted makers of photomasks, substrates, etchers, depositors, cleaning devices, testers and other tools, according to the people, who asked not to
Taichung reported the steepest fall in completed home prices among the six special municipalities in the first quarter of this year, data compiled by Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) showed yesterday. From January through last month, the average transaction price for completed homes in Taichung fell 8 percent from a year earlier to NT$299,000 (US$9,483) per ping (3.3m²), said Taiwan Realty, which compiled the data based on the government’s price registration platform. The decline could be attributed to many home buyers choosing relatively affordable used homes to live in themselves, instead of newly built homes in the city’s prime property market, Taiwan Realty
JET JUICE: The war on Iran’s secondary effects have seen fuel prices skyrocket, knocking flight schedules down to earth in return as airlines struggle with costs Airline passengers should brace for more irritation in the next few months as carriers worldwide cancel flights and ground planes to cope with stratospheric increases in jet-fuel prices. Dutch flag carrier KLM is the latest company to cut its schedule, saying on Thursday that it would scrap 80 return flights at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport in the coming month. That puts it in the same league as United Airlines Holdings Inc, Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd, which have all pruned itineraries to mitigate costs. Global capacity for next month has been reduced by about 3 percentage points, with all
Taiwan is attracting a growing number of foreign jobseekers as companies increasingly recruit overseas talent to ease labor shortages and expand global reach, recruitment platform 104 Job Bank (104人力銀行) said yesterday. More than 40,000 foreign nationals searched for jobs in Taiwan through the platform last year, a 28 percent increase from a year earlier, the company said. Malaysians accounted for the largest share of overseas jobseekers at 12.2 percent, followed by Indonesians at 11.9 percent and Vietnamese at 10.8 percent. Indonesian applicants surged more than 50 percent year-on-year, while Vietnamese jobseekers rose by more than 30 percent. Applicants from the
RSS