EQUITIES
Investors remain cautious
The TAIEX yesterday closed slightly higher after giving up most early gains, as market sentiment remained cautious ahead of the conclusion of a two-day policymaking meeting of the US Federal Reserve later in the day, dealers said. Large-cap tech stocks moved up and down throughout the session, while the transportation sector came under heavy pressure led by major shipping stocks, they said. Many tech heavyweights fell from their highs, while late-session bargain hunting prevented them from ending lower, which dealers said they attributed to government-led funds offsetting a foreign institutional sell-off. The TAIEX closed up 14.77 points, or 0.09 percent, at 16,940.83. Turnover totaled NT$397.158 billion (US$13.875 billion), with foreign institutional investors selling a net NT$14.999 billion of shares on the main board after selling a net NT$53.83 billion on Tuesday.
COMPUTERS
Quanta net profit rises 7.6%
Contract laptop maker Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦) yesterday posted a net profit of NT$9.28 billion for the final quarter of last year, a 7.6 percent year-on-year increase despite persistent shortages of key components. That led to a whole-year net profit of NT$33.65 billion, a 32.9 percent year-on-year increase, or earnings per share of NT$8.73, the highest in the company’s history. Quanta’s board of directors yesterday proposed distributing a cash dividend of NT$6.6 per common share, representing a payout ratio of 75.6 percent. With Quanta shares closing at NT$92 yesterday, the proposed dividend represents a cash yield of 7.17 percent. The dividend proposal is subject to shareholders’ approval at the company’s annual general meeting on June 17 in Taoyuan, Quanta said.
INVESTMENT
CDFHC net profit hits record
China Development Financial Holding Co (CDFHC, 中華開發金控) yesterday reported record net profit of NT$35 billion for last year, up 177 percent from 2020, thanks to stable contributions from its major subsidiaries, such as China Life Insurance Co (中國人壽), KGI Bank (凱基銀行), KGI Securities Ltd (凱基證券) and CDIB Capital Group (中華開發資本). The company told investors that it would raise its dividend payout this year, after it paid out a cash dividend of NT$0.55 per share last year, adding that it has yet to finalize the distribution plan. Despite fluctuations in local equities in the past few sessions, the company said that its outlook on the local bourse remains cautiously optimistic, citing sound fundamentals at Taiwan’s listed firms.
BANKING
Sunny Hsu released on bail
Former Shin Kong Financial Holding Co (新光金控) spokesman and senior vice president Sunny Hsu (徐順鋆) was on Tuesday released on bail of NT$200,000 after being questioned regarding suspected insider trading. Hsu and five other people, including Shin Kong Financial spokesman and vice president Stan Lee (李超儒), were earlier in the day summoned to the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office to answer questions about an April 2018 merger. At that time, Shin Kong Financial announced that it would acquire MasterLink Securities Co (元富證券), in which it held a 33.45 percent stake, via a share swap valued at about NT$13 billion to bring the firm fully under its corporate umbrella. On Tuesday, prosecutors and investigators also collected evidence for the case at five locations. After being questioned, Lee was released on bail of NT$300,000, prosecutors said.
TECH RACE: The Chinese firm showed off its new Mate XT hours after the latest iPhone launch, but its price tag and limited supply could be drawbacks China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday unveiled the world’s first tri-foldable phone, as it seeks to expand its lead in the world’s biggest smartphone market and steal the spotlight from Apple Inc hours after it debuted a new iPhone. The Chinese tech giant showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways like an accordion screen door, during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. The Mate XT comes in red and black and has a 10.2-inch display screen. At 3.6mm thick, it is the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone, Huawei said. The company’s Web site showed that it has garnered more than
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and Episil Technologies Inc (漢磊) yesterday announced plans to jointly build an 8-inch fab to produce silicon carbide (SiC) chips through an equity acquisition deal. SiC chips offer higher efficiency and lower energy loss than pure silicon chips, and they are able to operate at higher temperatures. They have become crucial to the development of electric vehicles, artificial intelligence data centers, green energy storage and industrial devices. Vanguard, a contract chipmaker focused on making power management chips and driver ICs for displays, is to acquire a 13 percent stake in Episil for NT$2.48 billion (US$77.1 million).
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
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