Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) has expanded into Europe for the first time after setting up a subsidiary in Frankfurt on Monday, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.
The subsidiary was launched at a ceremony presided over by the chairman of the European subsidiary, Chia Chung-yung (賈仲雍), and International Business Group president Richard Chen (陳錦洲), and streamed to Taipei via a video link.
In the statement, Chunghwa Telecom said it has sought to expand overseas, having already established subsidiaries in the US, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, and that it was pleased to have a foothold on a new continent.
Photo: CNA
“Today, with the formal establishment of its European presence, Chunghwa Telecom has completed its international service network across Europe, America and Asia,” the company said.
“This makes it the only telecom operator in Taiwan with overseas branches and the most comprehensive global network deployment,” it said.
Chunghwa Telecom chairman Harrison Kuo (郭水義), who followed the ceremony in Taipei, was quoted in the statement as saying: “Wherever Taiwanese businesses go, Chunghwa Telecom will be there for them.”
The company decided to establish a presence in Germany, because it is one of Europe’s most important economic hubs and has attracted many Taiwanese enterprises, Kuo said.
Some analysts believed that Chunghwa Telecom’s move was related to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) establishment of an advanced fab in Germany, which broke ground on Tuesday last week.
Analysts said the company would target TSMC’s need for local network infrastructure and information and communications (ICT) solutions. Chunghwa Telecom declined to comment.
Chunghwa Telecom president Ivan Lin (林昭陽) said in the statement that the establishment of the European subsidiary was an important step in the company’s global expansion, and he pledged to work closely with local partners to meet the needs of Taiwanese businesses worldwide.
Chunghwa Telecom said that the EU market and its 27 member states presented many opportunities, and that Germany, as the bloc’s largest economy, serves as a gateway for multinational companies entering the European market.
The company plans to collaborate with European telecoms, Taiwanese businesses and ICT players in Germany, while continuing with collaborative projects with Poland-based Exatel SA, the statement said.
Chunghwa Telecom began working with Exatel, the largest fixed-line telecommunications company in Poland, last year, including launching a high-speed node network interconnection on July 21 last year, the statement said.
On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump weighed in on a pressing national issue: The rebranding of a restaurant chain. Last week, Cracker Barrel, a Tennessee company whose nationwide locations lean heavily on a cozy, old-timey aesthetic — “rocking chairs on the porch, a warm fire in the hearth, peg games on the table” — announced it was updating its logo. Uncle Herschel, the man who once appeared next to the letters with a barrel, was gone. It sparked ire on the right, with Donald Trump Jr leading a charge against the rebranding: “WTF is wrong with Cracker Barrel?!” Later, Trump Sr weighed
SinoPac Financial Holdings Co (永豐金控) is weighing whether to add a life insurance business to its portfolio, but would tread cautiously after completing three acquisitions in quick succession, president Stanley Chu (朱士廷) said yesterday. “We are carefully considering whether life insurance should play a role in SinoPac’s business map,” Chu told reporters ahead of an earnings conference. “Our priority is to ensure the success of the deals we have already made, even though we are tracking some possible targets.” Local media have reported that Mercuries Life Insurance Co (三商美邦人壽), which is seeking buyers amid financial strains, has invited three financial
Artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Cambricon Technologies Corp (寒武紀科技) plunged almost 9 percent after warning investors about a doubling in its share price over just a month, a record gain that helped fuel a US$1 trillion Chinese market rally. Cambricon triggered the selloff with a Thursday filing in which it dispelled talk about nonexistent products in the pipeline, reminded investors it labors under US sanctions, and stressed the difficulties of ascending the technology ladder. The Shanghai-listed company’s stock dived by the most since April in early yesterday trading, while the market stood largely unchanged. The litany of warnings underscores growing scrutiny of
OUTLOOK: Among the six sub-indices, only the stock market confidence sub-index rose due to strong equity performance and expectations of a US Federal Reserve rate cut Consumer confidence weakened further this month, sliding to its lowest level in two-and-a-half years as households grew increasingly uneasy about the economic outlook, job security and big-ticket spending, a survey by the National Central University showed yesterday. The consumer confidence index fell 1.07 points from last month to 63.31, the weakest number since May 2023, said the university’s Research Center for Taiwan Economic Development (RCTED), which conducts the monthly poll. “Although the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics recently increased Taiwan’s GDP growth forecast for this year to 4.45 percent, consumer sentiment tells a different story,” RCTED director Dachrahn Wu