Shares of Foxtron Vehicle Technologies Co (鴻華先進), an electric vehicle joint venture between Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and Yulon Motor Co (裕隆汽車), yesterday fell 2.7 percent on their debut on the Taiwan Stock Exchange’s (TWSE) new trading platform — the Taiwan Innovation Board.
Foxtron is the 1,000th listed company on the nation’s main bourse and the eighth firm trading shares on the Innovation Board, TWSE said in a statement.
The stock dropped at the open from its initial public offering price of NT$50, and at one point fell to as low as NT$45.5, before paring some losses to close 2.7 percent lower at NT$48.65, underperforming the TAIEX’s 0.01 percent rise.
Photo: CNA
Established in 2020 with paid-in capital of NT$17.41 billion (US$549.94 million), Foxtron is 49.92 percent owned by Hon Hai and 47.96 percent held by Yulon subsidiary Hua-Chuang Automobile Information Technical Center Co (華創車電), with the remainder held by other investors.
Over the past three years, the company has developed four electric vehicle (EV) prototypes: the Model B crossover sports utility vehicle, Model C sports utility vehicle, Model E luxury sedan and the Model T bus.
Unique Satellite TV quoted Foxtron CEO Andy Lee (李秉彥) as saying at yesterday’s listing ceremony that the company is starting production of the Model C this quarter and expects to begin deliveries of the model in January next year.
Foxtron hopes to complete the delivery of 8,000 to 9,000 vehicles in the first half of next year, the company said.
The Model B is expected to start volume production in the fourth quarter of next year, while the delivery of Model T buses would exceed 100 units this year, up from 20 to 30 last year, it said.
“Compared with traditional automakers, which often spend five to six years from design to mass production, Foxtron has built four EV models in less than three years, at a faster speed to popularize electric cars in Taiwan and better serve local customers,” Foxtron chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) said at the listing ceremony yesterday.
Liu is also chairman of Hon Hai, a major Apple Inc supplier known internationally as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團).
Liu touted Foxtron’s advantages in speed, quality and cost efficiency in vehicle production, but said that “complete vehicle design” is the biggest challenge for the firm. “We would continue on this path,” he said.
Liu said Foxtron would use Taiwan as its production base and leverage Hon Hai’s “contract design and manufacturing service” (CDMS) and “build operate localize” (BOL) business models to enter mainstream markets such as North America and Southeast Asia, with electric passenger cars expected for North America initially and electric buses for Southeast Asia.
Foxtron lost NT$895 million in the first three quarters of this year, more than doubling its losses from NT$396 million a year earlier, with losses per share of NT$0.56. The company posted losses per share of NT$0.87 last year and NT$0.51 in 2021.
Cumulative sales in the first 10 months of the year rose 196.15 percent year-on-year to NT$764.7 million, company data showed.
With an approval rating of just two percent, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte might be the world’s most unpopular leader, according to pollsters. Protests greeted her rise to power 29 months ago, and have marked her entire term — joined by assorted scandals, investigations, controversies and a surge in gang violence. The 63-year-old is the target of a dozen probes, including for her alleged failure to declare gifts of luxury jewels and watches, a scandal inevitably dubbed “Rolexgate.” She is also under the microscope for a two-week undeclared absence for nose surgery — which she insists was medical, not cosmetic — and is
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
CHIP DUTIES: TSMC said it voiced its concerns to Washington about tariffs, telling the US commerce department that it wants ‘fair treatment’ to protect its competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reiterated robust business prospects for this year as strong artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from Nvidia Corp and other customers would absorb the impacts of US tariffs. “The impact of tariffs would be indirect, as the custom tax is the importers’ responsibility, not the exporters,” TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at the chipmaker’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Hsinchu City. TSMC’s business could be affected if people become reluctant to buy electronics due to inflated prices, Wei said. In addition, the chipmaker has voiced its concern to the US Department of Commerce
RSS