TECHNOLOGY
E Ink payout plan approved
Shareholders of E Ink Holdings Inc (元太科技), a leading e-paper display supplier, yesterday approved the company’s proposal to distribute a cash dividend of NT$3.2 per share, suggesting a payout ratio of 70.64 percent based on the company’s earnings per share of NT$4.53 last year, which were the highest in 10 years. E Ink reported revenue of NT$19.65 billion (US$659.62 million) for last year, the highest in nearly nine years, due to robust demand for e-paper displays, e-notes and electronic shelf labels. E Ink chief financial officer Lloyd Chen (陳樂群) told shareholders that the evolution of the contactless economy and digital transformation of retailing businesses have increased demand for the company’s products, prompting it to launch three new production lines for e-paper displays this year, as well as another production line next year. The company also pledged to use 100 percent renewable energy by 2030 and achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2040.
STEELMAKERS
CSC pretax profit drops
China Steel Corp (CSC, 中鋼), the nation’s only integrated steelmaker, yesterday reported that its pretax profit last month dropped 22 percent to NT$4.44 billion from a month earlier, as revenue decreased 4.24 percent year-on-year to NT$45.41 billion. On a yearly basis, China Steel’s pretax profit fell 41.76 percent, the company said. The monthly decline in pretax profit was mainly due to a decrease in sales volume, while a lack of income from its mining investment compared with April also led to a decline in profit, it said. From January to last month, the company reported a 9 percent decrease in cumulative pretax profit to NT$24.6 billion, down from NT$26.9 billion a year earlier. Consolidated revenue in the first five months of the year increased 17 percent to NT$204.1 billion, up from NT$174.45 billion a year earlier.
COMPUTERS
Adlink expects improvements
Industrial computer maker Adlink Technology Inc (凌華科技) yesterday said gross margin would improve in the second half of the year, thanks to price hikes and favorable foreign exchange rates. Its inventory level is also forecast to decline in the second half compared with the first half, the company told shareholders at its annual general meeting in Taipei. With component and raw material shortages expected to ease in the coming months, and production resuming at its plants in China, Adlink said its business outlook would improve in the third and fourth quarters, after a weak performance in the first two quarters. The company reported earnings per share of NT$0.55 last year, down 51.2 percent year-on-year. Shareholders approved the company’s plan to distribute a cash dividend of NT$0.3 per share.
INSURANCE
Firms lose on virus policies
Local insurance companies had as of Monday paid 314,900 COVID-19 insurance policyholders a total of NT$11.2 billion, three times the cumulative premium income of NT$3.56 billion from the sales of the policies, the Financial Supervisory Commission told a news conference on Tuesday. Compensation would likely surpass NT$15 billion at the end of this month, the commission said. Meanwhile, 3.76 million policies have been sold so far this year, the commission said. The number of claims grew by 70,000 to 80,000 per week amid rising local COVID-19 case numbers, the commission said.
Nvidia Corp’s GB300 platform is expected to account for 70 to 80 percent of global artificial intelligence (AI) server rack shipments this year, while adoption of its next-generation Vera Rubin 200 platform is to gradually gain momentum after the third quarter of the year, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said. Servers based on Nvidia’s GB300 chips entered mass production last quarter and they are expected to become the mainstay models for Taiwanese server manufacturers this year, Trendforce analyst Frank Kung (龔明德) said in an interview. This year is expected to be a breakout year for AI servers based on a variety of chips, as
Sweeping policy changes under US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr are having a chilling effect on vaccine makers as anti-vaccine rhetoric has turned into concrete changes in inoculation schedules and recommendations, investors and executives said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has in the past year upended vaccine recommendations, with the country last month ending its longstanding guidance that all children receive inoculations against flu, hepatitis A and other diseases. The unprecedented changes have led to diminished vaccine usage, hurt the investment case for some biotechs, and created a drag that would likely dent revenues and
Global semiconductor stocks advanced yesterday, as comments by Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) at Davos, Switzerland, helped reinforce investor enthusiasm for artificial intelligence (AI). Samsung Electronics Co gained as much as 5 percent to an all-time high, helping drive South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI above 5,000 for the first time. That came after the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose more than 3 percent to a fresh record on Wednesday, with a boost from Nvidia. The gains came amid broad risk-on trade after US President Donald Trump withdrew his threat of tariffs on some European nations over backing for Greenland. Huang further
HSBC Bank Taiwan Ltd (匯豐台灣商銀) and the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to enhance cooperation on the suspicious transaction analysis mechanism. This landmark agreement makes HSBC the first foreign bank in Taiwan to establish such a partnership with the High Prosecutors Office, underscoring its commitment to active anti-fraud initiatives, financial inclusion, and the “Treating Customers Fairly” principle. Through this deep public-private collaboration, both parties aim to co-create a secure financial ecosystem via early warning detection and precise fraud prevention technologies. At the signing ceremony, HSBC Taiwan CEO and head of banking Adam Chen (陳志堅)
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