Chi Mei Corp (奇美實業), a leading synthetic and electronic materials supplier, yesterday said that it has incurred more than NT$1 billion (US$35.89 million) in losses after disposing of some of its stake in flat panel maker Innolux Corp (群創光電).
The sale of about 183.71 million Innolux shares, representing a more than 2 percent stake in the company, came after a rethink about how it wanted to reallocate its funds, Chi Mei said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
The company disposed of the Innolux shares in four transactions between Aug. 10 and Wednesday last week and it rceived NT$3.26 billion from the sales, incurring NT$1.114 billion in losses.
Those funds would be invested in US dollar-denominated bonds, which are expected to yield a higher return, said Chi Mei, whose stake in Innolux has now fallen to 0.83 percent at a time when flat panel prices are falling due to weakening global demand.
Innolux shares hit NT$32.55 on April 29, a 10-year intraday high, but they have since come under pressure amid concerns over falling product prices.
The shares fell 47 percent between April 29 and Wednesday last week, the last day Chi Mei sold Innolux shares.
Before the disposal, Chi Mei was Innolux’s third-largest shareholder with a 2.59 percent stake, trailing Hon Hai Group’s (鴻海集團) 6.79 percent and the Labor Pension Fund’s 2.89 percent, according to Innolux’s latest annual report.
Innolux posted its highest-ever quarterly net profit of NT$21.4 billion in the second quarter, or earnings per share at NT$2.05, but flat panel prices, especially large screens for TVs, have since fallen.
CHIP RACE: Three years of overbroad export controls drove foreign competitors to pursue their own AI chips, and ‘cost US taxpayers billions of dollars,’ Nvidia said China has figured out the US strategy for allowing it to buy Nvidia Corp’s H200s and is rejecting the artificial intelligence (AI) chip in favor of domestically developed semiconductors, White House AI adviser David Sacks said, citing news reports. US President Donald Trump on Monday said that he would allow shipments of Nvidia’s H200 chips to China, part of an administration effort backed by Sacks to challenge Chinese tech champions such as Huawei Technologies Co (華為) by bringing US competition to their home market. On Friday, Sacks signaled that he was uncertain about whether that approach would work. “They’re rejecting our chips,” Sacks
NATIONAL SECURITY: Intel’s testing of ACM tools despite US government control ‘highlights egregious gaps in US technology protection policies,’ a former official said Chipmaker Intel Corp has tested chipmaking tools this year from a toolmaker with deep roots in China and two overseas units that were targeted by US sanctions, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter. Intel, which fended off calls for its CEO’s resignation from US President Donald Trump in August over his alleged ties to China, got the tools from ACM Research Inc, a Fremont, California-based producer of chipmaking equipment. Two of ACM’s units, based in Shanghai and South Korea, were among a number of firms barred last year from receiving US technology over claims they have
It is challenging to build infrastructure in much of Europe. Constrained budgets and polarized politics tend to undermine long-term projects, forcing officials to react to emergencies rather than plan for the future. Not in Austria. Today, the country is to officially open its Koralmbahn tunnel, the 5.9 billion euro (US$6.9 billion) centerpiece of a groundbreaking new railway that will eventually run from Poland’s Baltic coast to the Adriatic Sea, transforming travel within Austria and positioning the Alpine nation at the forefront of logistics in Europe. “It is Austria’s biggest socio-economic experiment in over a century,” said Eric Kirschner, an economist at Graz-based Joanneum
OPTION: Uber said it could provide higher pay for batch trips, if incentives for batching is not removed entirely, as the latter would force it to pass on the costs to consumers Uber Technologies Inc yesterday warned that proposed restrictions on batching orders and minimum wages could prompt a NT$20 delivery fee increase in Taiwan, as lower efficiency would drive up costs. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi made the remarks yesterday during his visit to Taiwan. He is on a multileg trip to the region, which includes stops in South Korea and Japan. His visit coincided the release last month of the Ministry of Labor’s draft bill on the delivery sector, which aims to safeguard delivery workers’ rights and improve their welfare. The ministry set the minimum pay for local food delivery drivers at