FINANCIAL SERVICES
Bank nears approval: FSC
Web-only Next Commercial Bank Co (將來商業銀行) is likely to gain regulatory approval to begin operating by the end of the year, Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) Chairman Thomas Huang (黃天牧) said yesterday at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee. The bank still needs to address some issues after an inspection in April regarding its information system purchase, Huang said. Two other Internet-only banks, Rakuten International Commercial Bank Co (樂天國際商銀) and Line Bank Taiwan Ltd (連線商業銀行), launched earlier this year, with 60,000 and 459,000 users respectively as of Tuesday, FSC data showed.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Win Semi reports profit
Win Semiconductors Corp (Win Semi, 穩懋半導體), the world’s largest compound semiconductor foundry, yesterday reported that gross margin improved 3.1 percentage points to 38.8 percent last quarter over the previous quarter, thanks to a better product mix and rising factory utilization. With rising revenue, net profit grew 61 percent from the second quarter to NT$1.496 billion (US$53.75 million), while earnings per share were NT$3.67, compared with NT$2.32 in the second quarter. The company expects gross margin for this quarter to reach 37 to 39 percent, while revenue is likely to increase by mid-single digit percentage points from last quarter, it said.
EQUITIES
KMC files to shift exchanges
Bicycle chain maker KMC Kuei Meng International Inc (桂盟國際) yesterday applied to shift its listing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange from the Taipei Exchange. Tainan-based KMC Kuei Meng produces bicycle chains, automotive accessories and scooter parts. Given robust bicycle sales worldwide, the company’s revenue for the first three quarters was NT$5.71 billion, up 32.89 percent year-on-year, a record for the period. Its earnings per share were NT$7.79 in the first half of the year, up 64 percent from a year earlier and also a record. As of yesterday, 19 local companies had submitted listing applications to the Taiwan Stock Exchange this year, the exchange said.
ROBOTICS
Taiwan, US groups sign MOU
The Ministry of Economic Affairs and robotics associations from Taiwan and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday signed a trilateral memorandum of understanding (MOU) in Taipei to develop a platform to facilitate smart manufacturing by improving supply chain resilience. The MOU, signed at the Taiwan-US Smart Manufacturing Summit, is aimed at solidifying links between the countries’ industrial clusters in robotics, automation, artificial intelligence and smart manufacturing, the ministry said. Through the platform, Taiwan hopes to leverage top-end US technology to help manufacturers transform their business to develop high-value products and services, it said.
RETAIL
Firms eye Carrefour Taiwan
Buyout firms Carlyle Group Inc and CVC Capital Partners are among suitors considering bids for French grocer Carrefour SA’s Taiwan operations, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday, citing people with knowledge of the matter. Conglomerate Far Eastern Group (遠東集團) is also considering an offer for the business, whose enterprise value could be worth 1.6 billion euros (US$1.86 billion), the people said. The process has advanced to the second round and binding bids are due in the next few weeks, the people said.
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