Companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) and the over-the-counter (OTC) market raked in a record NT$918.1 billion (US$33.1 billion) in the first nine months of this year, the Financial Supervisory Commission said.
The figure represented an increase of NT$545.8 billion, or 146.6 percent, from a year earlier, commission data showed.
It comprises NT$881.4 billion from companies listed on the TWSE and NT$36.7 billion from firms listed on the OTC market, the data showed.
Photo: AP
The growth largely came from logistics service providers, which charged higher freight rates due to a global supply shortage and port congestion, the commission said.
In addition, the electronics industry benefited from international brands’ new device launches, including smartphones, which boosted shipments, especially for the semiconductor industry, it said.
In the first nine months, listed shipping companies’ profit from overseas investments reached NT$294.7 billion, soaring NT$273.2 billion from a year earlier, making the industry the most profitable among all of the sectors that benefited from overseas investments, the data showed.
The semiconductor industry posted an annual increase of NT$49.9 billion, or an almost 200 percent rise in the nine-month period, while other electronics firms posted a NT$47 billion increase in overseas profit for a nearly 100 percent rise, the data showed.
A total of 1,280 listed firms had invested overseas as of the end of the third quarter, accounting for 78 percent of all listed companies, and their total investments had reached NT$7.02 trillion, up NT$205 billion from the end of last year, the commission said.
Most of the increase came after many Taiwanese firms, led by semiconductor suppliers, set up subsidiaries or launched mergers and acquisitions to expand their operations, Securities and Futures Bureau Deputy Director-General Tsai Li-ling (蔡麗玲) said.
Listed firms investing in China reported a record NT$379.5 billion in total profit in the first nine months, rising NT$102.6 billion from a year earlier, the commission said.
The figure comprises NT$357 billion posted by companies listed on the TWSE and NT$22.5 billion by those listed on the OTC market, the commission said.
The increase reflects solid demand for a wide range of products, such as smartphones, raw materials, and computers and peripheral devices, as well as chemical products, it said.
As of the end of September, 1,202 listed companies had invested in China, accounting for 73.5 percent of the companies listed on local equity markets. They had invested NT$5.4 trillion in China, up NT$18.8 billion from the end of last year, the commission said.
The Chinese market has become part of many listed Taiwanese firms’ global expansion strategies, with the companies increasingly seeing China as a place to raise investment capital, either through the establishment of subsidiaries or mergers and acquisitions, Tsai said.
Real estate agent and property developer JSL Construction & Development Co (愛山林) led the average compensation rankings among companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) last year, while contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) finished 14th. JSL Construction paid its employees total average compensation of NT$4.78 million (US$159,701), down 13.5 percent from a year earlier, but still ahead of the most profitable listed tech giants, including TSMC, TWSE data showed. Last year, the average compensation (which includes salary, overtime, bonuses and allowances) paid by TSMC rose 21.6 percent to reach about NT$3.33 million, lifting its ranking by 10 notches
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