INVESTMENT
Foreign share sales dive
Foreign investors last week sold a net NT$22.98 billion (US$776.04 million) in local shares after selling a net NT$107.81 billion a week earlier, the Taiwan Stock Exchange said in a statement yesterday. As of Friday, foreign investors had sold NT$913.014 billion in local shares since the beginning of the year, the exchange said. The top three shares sold by foreign investors last week were United Microelectronics Corp (聯電), China Steel Corp (中鋼) and Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp (陽明海運), while the top three shares bought by foreign investors were Innolux Corp (群創光電), Mega Financial Holding Co (兆豐金控) and First Financial Holding Co (第一金控), it said. As of Friday, the market capitalization of shares held by foreign investors was NT$19.08 trillion, or 40.12 percent of total market capitalization, it said.
RESTAURANTS
Thai chain optimistic
TTFB Co Ltd (瓦城泰統集團) yesterday gave an upbeat outlook for the second half of this year, as the number of local COVID-19 infections drop, domestic demand recovery expectations rise, and the food and beverage industry enters its high season. The company aims to boost its food delivery platform, integrate online and offline services, and leverage its strength in procurement to maximize profits and generate better returns for shareholders, the nation’s largest Thai and full-service restaurant chain operator said in a statement. TTFB shareholders yesterday approved the company’s plan to distribute a dividend of NT$7.15 per share, which represents a payout ratio of 101 percent based on earnings per share of NT$7.04 last year. The company made record earnings per share of NT$15.95 in 2020. As of the end of last month, the company operated 135 stores in Taiwan and four in China, it said.
ECONOMY
Tech demand boosts sales
Sales in the wholesale sector increased 7.9 percent year-on-year to NT$1.08 trillion last month, a record high for May, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Thursday. That came as growing demand for new technology applications and rising raw material prices pushed up wholesale machinery equipment sales 12.3 percent and construction materials 3.9 percent last month, while sales of pharmaceutical and cosmetic products jumped 50 percent, as hospitals and pharmacies increased their stocks, the ministry said in a statement. In the first five months, total wholesale sales increased 9.8 percent to NT$5.31 trillion, the highest for the five-month period on record, ministry data showed.
INSURANCE
Firms fined for breaches
The Financial Supervisory Commission on Thursday fined Taishin International Bank (台新銀行) NT$3 million and the Taiwan branch of Cardif Assurance Vie (法國巴黎人壽) NT$1.2 million, as the two firms contravened the Insurance Act (保險法) by failing to correctly inform their clients about purchases of investment-linked insurance policies. The commission said Taishn Bank’s agents encouraged three senior citizens to terminate their old insurance policies and use the surrender value to buy new investment-linked insurance products offered by Cardif Assurance. However, the bank pushed the transactions inappropriately by encouraging clients to terminate policies in advance and did not evaluate whether the new products fit the clients’ risk appetite, while the life insurer failed to examine the clients’ sources of funds for the new products, it said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six