FINANCE
Shinhan bonds listed locally
South Korean credit card company Shinhan Card Co Ltd’s international bonds were yesterday listed on the Taipei Exchange, making it the first foreign financial institution to issue international bonds in Taiwan. The US$300 million of bonds, with maturities of five years and a coupon rate of 1.375 percent, have a dual listing in Taipei and Singapore, and the lead underwriter of the bond is HSBC Bank Taiwan Ltd (匯豐台灣商銀), the exchange said. The funds raised are to be used exclusively for social projects focusing on financing for the development of public hospitals and medical facilities, loans to low-income populations with low credit ratings, subsidizing the borrowing of loans for infrastructure and transportation projects, and supporting interest payments, it said.
BROKERAGES
Combined profit declines
Securities firms in Taiwan last month reported combined net income of NT$4.76 billion (US$169.96 million), down 64.14 percent from April, the Taiwan Stock Exchange said in a statement on Tuesday. The exchange attributed last month’s drop to a 163.72 percent decline in dealer trading profit and a 79.64 percent fall in underwriting profit, compared with April, although securities firms saw an increase of 31 percent in brokerage fee income. Securities firms’ accumulated net income in the first five months of the year totaled NT$44.89 billion, up 480.34 percent from the same period last year, the exchange said. The significant rise in brokerage fee income, dealer trading profit and underwriting profit came as the TAIEX reversed its downward momentum, it added.
AIRLINES
Air NZ to restart local flights
Air New Zealand is to resume direct passenger flights between Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and Auckland Airport in August after a 16-month hiatus, the airline said in a news release yesterday. Starting on Aug. 4, the airline plans to operate one round-trip flight per month between Taipei and Auckland, it said, adding that passengers can book flights for between August and October. For the service, the airline said that it would use its Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, which has air purifiers with high efficiency particulate air filters installed. The company suspended all flights between Taiwan and New Zealand on March 30 last year after the COVID-19 pandemic spread worldwide, but it resumed cargo services on June 13, operating two flights per week to Taiwan.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Vaxxinity, Paraguay ink deal
Vaxxinity, a US affiliate of local vaccine maker United Biomedical Inc Asia (聯亞生技), has signed a contract with Paraguay to provide 1 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine once it gets emergency use authorization from Taiwan’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the company said on Monday. The order was signed on June 16 in Asuncion by Paraguayan Minister of Public Health and Social Welfare Julio Borba and Vaxxinity chief strategy officer Jon Harrison. The UB-612 vaccine is expected to be delivered later this summer, pending issuance of emergency use authorization by the FDA and subsequent registration by the Paraguayan National Health Surveillance Authority, it said. The move would make Paraguay one of the first countries in the world to receive the UB-612 vaccine once it receives emergency use authorization, it added.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day