Continental Holdings Corp (欣陸投控) aims to improve its earnings ability this year and beyond by consolidating resources and deepening environment, social and corporate governance (ESG) accountability.
The conglomerate, which owns Continental Engineering Corp (大陸工程), Continental Development Corp (大陸建設), and HDEC Corp (欣達環工), has closely monitored the performance of its subsidiaries and pooled their resources to boost synergy, Continental Holdings chairperson Nita Ing (殷琪) told its annual general meeting in Taipei on Friday last week.
The group has used the resources to achieve ESG growth in line with UN recommendations, Ing said, adding that ESG endeavors accounted for 58 percent of revenue last year.
Continental Holdings will regularly disclose its operating situation, while improving communication and relations with investors and shareholders, she said.
In the first six months of this year, the group reported NT$11.95 billion (US$427.86 million) in combined revenue, suggesting a 33.6 percent increase from the same period last year, company data showed.
While business at the three subsidiaries improved, the property development arm showed the most growth, the data showed.
It reported revenue of NT$16.3 billion for the first quarter, more than doubling its sales for the whole of last year, Continental Development chairman Christopher Chang (張良吉) said, adding that the gains would be recognized over the next three years.
Shareholders at the meeting approved the distribution of a cash dividend of NT$1.4 per share from last year’s profit of NT$1.54 billion, or earnings per share of NT$1.87, a payout ratio of 74.87 percent.
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],”
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
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