EQUITIES
Foreigners sell NT$9.59bn
Foreign institutional investors last week sold a net NT$9.59 billion (US$313.6 million) of local shares, after selling a net NT$9.28 billion the previous week, the Taiwan Stock Exchange said yesterday. The top three shares sold by foreign investors last week were Walsin Lihwa Corp (華新麗華), First Financial Holding Co (第一金控) and China Steel Corp (中鋼), while the top three bought by foreign investors were Winbond Electronics Corp (華邦電子), United Microelectronics Corp (聯電) and Evergreen Marine Corp (長榮海運), the exchange said in a statement. As of Friday last week, foreign investors had bought NT$216.77 billion of local shares since the beginning of this year, while the market capitalization of the shares held by foreign investors was NT$19.84 trillion, or 40.64 percent of total market capitalization, it said.
SEMICONDUCTORS
UMC revenue hits new low
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) yesterday said revenue last month contracted by 18.64 percent to NT$16.93 billion from a year earlier, the lowest in 22 months. Last month’s figure was down 13.56 percent from the previous month, it said. During the first two months of this year, revenue dropped 11.53 percent year-on-year to NT$36.52 billion, UMC said in a statement, as the chipmaker’s wafer shipments were affected by the inventory adjustments.
BATTERIES
BizLink revenue decreases
BizLink Holding Inc (貿聯控股), the sole supplier of wiring harnesses for battery management systems used in Tesla Inc’s electric vehicles (EV), yesterday said revenue decreased 1.47 percent annually to NT$4.08 billion last month. The company’s revenue in the first two months rose 11.04 percent to NT$8.08 billion on an annual basis. BizLink said orders from semiconductor customers weakened last month. By product, shipments of components used in data centers dropped, but the EV segment was the bright spot with shipments continuing to increase, while shipments of components used in industrial devices showed strong momentum, it said.
AVIATION
StarLux secures Airbus loan
Starlux Airlines Co (星宇航空) yesterday reached a NT$4.06 billion syndicated loan agreement with 11 local banks to fund the purchase of a second Airbus 350-900 passenger jet. It was the second syndicated loan for Starlux, after the airline secured a NT$3.82 billion syndicated loan with 10 banks in September last year to fund the purchase of its first Airbus 350-900. The new loan was 92 percent oversubscribed by the banks, led by Taiwan Cooperative Bank (合庫銀行), the airline said.
SHIPPING
Wisdom posts pretax losses
Wisdom Marine Lines Co (慧洋海運) last month turned a loss for the first time in 31 months due to declining freight rates amid a gloomy market. The bulk shipper on Friday reported a pretax loss of NT$195 million, from a pretax profit of NT$649 million a year earlier, while revenue decreased 43 percent to NT$924 million. For the first two months of this year, cumulative pretax losses were NT$165 million, with losses per share of NT$0.22, it said. Wisdom said freight rates had bottomed out in the middle of last month and might start to improve this month. The shipper expects freight rates to hold up in the second quarter, which is usually a peak season for transportation of South American grains.
UNPRECEDENTED PACE: Micron Technology has announced plans to expand manufacturing capabilities with the acquisition of a new chip plant in Miaoli Micron Technology Inc unveiled a newly acquired chip plant in Miaoli County yesterday, as the company expands capacity to meet growing demand for advanced DRAM chips, including high-bandwidth memory chips amid the artificial intelligence boom. The plant in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), which Micron acquired from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion, is expected to make a sizeable capacity contribution to the company from fiscal 2028, the company said in a statement. It would be an extended production site of Micron’s large-scale manufacturing hub in Taichung, the company said. As the global semiconductor industry is racing to reach US$1 trillion
Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery giant Grab Holdings Ltd has applied for regulatory approval to acquire the Taiwan operations of Germany-based Delivery Hero SE's Foodpanda in a deal valued at about US$600 million. Grab submitted the filing to the Fair Trade Commission on Friday last week, with the transaction subject to regulatory review and approval, the company said in a statement yesterday. Its independent governance structure would help foster a healthy and competitive market in Taiwan if the deal is approved, Grab said. Grab, which is listed on the NASDAQ, said in the filing that US-based Uber Technologies Inc holds about 13 percent of
Taiwan’s food delivery market could undergo a major shift if Singapore-based Grab Holdings Ltd completes its planned acquisition of Delivery Hero SE’s Foodpanda business in Taiwan, industry experts said. Grab on Monday last week announced it would acquire Foodpanda’s Taiwan operations for US$600 million. The deal is expected to be finalized in the second half of this year, with Grab aiming to complete user migration to its platform by the first half of next year. A duopoly between Uber Eats and Foodpanda dominates Taiwan’s delivery market, a structure that has remained intact since the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) blocked Uber Technologies Inc’s
Memory chip stocks extended their losses yesterday after Alphabet Inc’s Google publicized research that could allow more efficient use of the storage needed for artificial intelligence (AI) development. SK Hynix Inc and Samsung Electronics Co, South Korean leaders in the market, fell more than 6 percent and about 5 percent respectively in Seoul. In the US, Micron Technology Inc, Western Digital Corp and Sandisk Corp slid more than 2 percent in pre-market trading, after they all closed lower on Wednesday. Memory companies have been on a tear in recent months as the rapid development of AI infrastructure triggered a spike in chip
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