EQUITIES
Foreigners net buyers
Foreign institutional investors last week bought a net NT$46.83 billion (US$1.54 million) of local shares, after selling a net NT$32.46 billion the previous week, the Taiwan Stock Exchange said yesterday. The top three shares bought by foreign investors last week were Wistron Corp (緯創), Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and United Microelectronics Corp (聯電), while the top three sold by foreign investors were CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控), Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) and Shin Kong Financial Holding Co (新光金控), the exchange said in a statement. As of Friday, foreign investors had bought NT$194.3 billion of local shares since the beginning of this year, while the market capitalization of the shares held by foreign investors was NT$20.37 trillion, or 40.85 percent of total market capitalization, it said.
EXHIBITIONS
Trade show attracts 20,000
The Taipei Cycle Show and the Taipei International Sporting Goods Show, which closed on Saturday, attracted 5,400 international buyers from 81 countries, the organizer said in a statement. Being the first trade fair to physically welcome visitors from around the world after Taiwan reopened its borders, the joint show attracted about 20,000 visitors, up 71 percent from a year earlier, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA, 外貿協會) said. The top five buyer countries were Japan, South Korea, the US, Singapore and Germany, in that order, TAITRA said.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Sumitomo to invest NT$1bn
Sumitomo Bakelite (Taiwan) Co (台灣住友培科) has pledged to invest NT$1 billion in Taiwan to expand the production capacity of its semiconductor packaging materials, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Friday. The company has gained approval from the InvesTaiwan Service Center to participate in a government incentive program, as it plans to build new manufacturing facilities and install more production lines in Kaohsiung’s Dafa Industrial Park (大發工業區), the ministry said in a statement.
CHIPMAKERS
TSMC rewards executives
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has announced the issuance of 2.11 million shares to CEO C.C. Wei (魏哲家) and 24 other executives as part of its restricted stock awards (RSA) program this year. Wei received 400,000 restricted shares, which are worth about NT$215.6 million based on the company’s closing price of NT$539 on Friday, TSMC said in a statement. The company’s RSA program saw it issue 2.11 million restricted shares, which link employees’ compensation to shareholders’ interests and environmental, social and governance achievements.
HOSPITALITY
FIH unveils dividend plan
Formosa International Hotels Group (FIH, 晶華國際酒店) last week said that it plans to distribute a cash dividend of NT$9 per share, up from last year’s NT$7.09 per share. The proposal came after the hospitality service provider reported that net profit last year increased 30.37 percent annually to NT$1.02 billion, while revenue rose 13.51 percent to NT$5.6 billion. FIH said its food and beverage sales last year beat the pre-pandemic figures by double percentages and that business at its flagship property Regent Taipei (台北晶華酒店) recovered to 90 percent of the pre-pandemic level.
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
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts