ELECTRONICS
Hon Hai pay date unveiled
Key iPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday said it plans to distribute a cash dividend to shareholders on July 28. At the company’s annual general meeting on Wednesday last week, shareholders approved the company’s proposal to distribute a cash dividend of NT$5.3 per common share based on last year’s earnings per share of NT$10.21. The company is expected to distribute a total of NT$73.47 billion (US$2.39 billion) in dividends this year, with company founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) likely to receive NT$9.23 billion in dividend income as he owns about 1.74 billion shares.
ELECTRONICS
HTC sales up almost 20%
Smartphone maker HTC Corp’s (宏達電) consolidated sales for last month rose 19.67 percent month-on-month and 18.28 percent year-on-year to NT$359 million, the company said yesterday. As the company has managed to diversify its product mix and develop its virtual reality business to take the pressure off its lackluster smartphone sales, revenue for the first five months of the year grew 1.11 percent year-on-year to NT$1.64 billion. Analysts attributed the improvement in sales to the contribution from the company’s virtual reality headset Vive XR Elite, which it launched in late February.
TELECOMS
Sercomm sales up 9.1%
Sercomm Corp (中磊電子), which supplies telecommunications and broadband equipment, yesterday reported that consolidated sales for last month grew 9.1 percent to NT$5.02 billion from NT$4.6 billion a year earlier. Last month’s figure was the best May performance in the company’s history. The company attributed the increase to governments around the world investing in infrastructure construction, which has continued to drive demand for networking equipment. From January to last month, cumulative sales totaled NT$26.18 billion, up 18.1 percent from NT$22.16 billion for the same period last year, the company said in a statement.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Sigurd sees demand pickup
Chip testing and packaging services provider Sigurd Microelectronics Corp (矽格) yesterday reported that consolidated sales for last month rose 1.07 percent month-on-month, but declined 30.85 percent year-on-year to NT$1.21 billion. The company said last month’s sales were in line with expectations, adding that demand is expected to recover in the second half of the year as orders are slowly picking up. Sales in the first five months decreased 24.84 percent year-on-year to NT$6.03 billion, it said. Sigurd is to hold its annual general meeting today, at which shareholders are to vote on the company’s proposed cash dividend of NT$4.2 per common share.
MACHINERY
Hiwin bullish about Q3
Machinery maker Hiwin Technologies Co (上銀科技) posted revenue of NT$2.22 billion for last month, down 19.31 percent from a year earlier, the company said yesterday. On a monthly basis, revenue rose 2.98 percent due to more working days last month, it said. Cumulative revenue for the first five months of the year decreased 22.63 percent year-on-year to NT$10.1 billion, said the company, which makes ball screws and linear guideways. Hiwin’s order visibility has extended to three to four months from two months in the fourth quarter of last year, and its revenue growth is expected to turn positive from the third quarter of this year amid an upcycle.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last