Business and Finance

Hon Hai details plan for Toshiba unit

JEOPARDY:Woo said the Japanese conglomerate’s chip business would fall behind if it fails to make investments quickly, pointing to Samsung’s plans for a new facility

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 08, 2017
By: Bloomberg

Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康), is pressing its case to acquire Toshiba Corp’s memory chip unit, as the Japanese conglomerate struggles to complete the sale and avoid having its shares delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Hon Hai has broad support for its offer from Apple Inc, Softbank Group Corp and Sharp Corp and is ready to proceed right away, Hon Hai spokesman Louis Woo (胡國輝) said.

He declined to specify how much the company is offering for the business, but people familiar with the matter have previously said it is bidding more than the two rival groups led by KKR & Co LP and Bain Capital LP.

“The bid speaks for itself. It is deal certainty,” Woo said.

“What this customer consortium means is that it will provide steady funds to Toshiba to advance their R&D [research and development]. At the same time, it’s a guarantee there will be more customers lining up to buy their products when they increase their capacity or have better products,” he added.    [FULL  STORY]

Intelligent mechanics is the focus of Taiwanese industry: VP

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-09-06

Chen was speaking on Wednesday at the opening of the Industry 4.0 & Intelligent

Vice-President Chen Chien-jen says intelligent mechanics will be the central focus on Taiwan’s industrial development and transformation in the near term.

Manufacturing Exhibition in Taipei. He said robotics, AI, and intelligent mechanics are ways of the future, and that they will be at the center of the government’s “5+2” initiative to transform the nation’s industries.

“We really believe that intelligent mechanics is our main focus. President Tsai Ing-wen also agrees, and she has advised the new premier to consider the 5+2 industry transformation plan as one of his priorities in order to boost Taiwan’s economy. The intelligent mechanics and AI industries don’t just boost Taiwan’s domestic industry. They will also add additional economic values and make Taiwan more competitive on the international stage,” said Chen.    [FULL  STORY]

Final review of 815 power cut calls for tighter cooperation between CPC and Taipower

Investigation found both procedure oversight and risk management inadequate

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/09/06
By: Light McCandless, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News)–The Executive Yuan’s working group on the Aug. 15 power cut

The Aug. 15 power cut shut off power to the entire country. Image: CNA

met for the fifth and final time.

Its conclusion, after a five and a half hour final meeting, was that CPC Corporation, Taiwan (中油公司) and Taipower (台電) need to work together better horizontally. The full report into the incident will be published after approval from the Executive Yuan.

During the five meetings, the cause of the incident, its scope and the administrative responsibility were broadly clarified. The final report will recommend options for administrative responsibility. It will also make recommendations for immediate implementation and medium- and long-term improvements. Minister without Portfolio and concurrently Minister, Public Construction Commission, Wu Hong-mou, will first report to the Premier and then the report’s recommendations will be made public.
[FULL  STORY]

UMC indicted on charges of trade secret, copyright infringements

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/09/06
By: Su Mu-chun and Kuan-lin Liu

Taipei, Sept. 6 (CNA) United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC), the second largest

CNA file photo

contract chip maker in Taiwan, and three of its employees were indicted Wednesday for violating the Trade Secrets Act and the Copyright Act.

UMC and the three individuals, surnamed Ho, Wang and Rong, allegedly illegally replicated Micron Technology, Inc. manufacturing techniques for the profit of UMC businesses in China, the Taichung District Prosecutors Office said in its indictment.

Ho and Wang are former employees of Micron Technology, where the former was a section chief and the latter a manufacturing deputy manager, prosecutors said.

In November 2015, Ho joined UMC where he became technical manager for special projects. Wang followed suit in March 2016, joining UMC as a technical manager for component parts, they said.    [FULL  STORY]

CPC to propose blackout punishments

ENSURING GAS?Acting chairman Yang Wei-fu said that the company is to establish standard operating procedures and foolproof designs to prevent accidental cuts

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 07, 2017
By: Lauly Li / Staff reporter

CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) acting chairman Yang Wei-fu (楊偉甫) yesterday said that the firm tomorrow is to propose a list of punishments over the Aug. 15 blackouts based on a report by the Executive Yuan.

“The list might involve not only frontline operators, but also management personnel,” said Yang, who is vice minister of economic affairs.

“It is a necessary move to meet the public’s expectations,” he told a news conference at the ministry in Taipei.

CPC mistakenly suspended supply to a gas-fired power plant in Taoyuan’s Datan Township (大潭) for two minutes on the evening of Aug. 15 as a contractor — Lumax International Corp (巨路國際) — was replacing power supply components at a metering station.    [FULL  STORY]

Power outage at shopping mall caused by transformer failure: Taipower

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/09/03
By: Liao Yu-yang and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, Sept. 3 (CNA) The Miramar shopping center in Taipei’s Dazhi was hit by a brief

CNA file photo

power outage Sunday afternoon, which state-run Taiwan Power Co. (Taipower) explained was caused by the failure of the electricity user’s self-setting voltage transformer.

The power outage occurred at 2:16 p.m. and lasted for six minutes until 2:22 p.m., said a Miramar public relations official, adding that Taipower told them the blackout was caused by an anomaly in the electricity supply at its substation on the city’s Minquan East Road.

Taipower spokesman Lin Te-fu (林德福), however, told CNA that after a further check, his company found no abnormalities in the power supply on Taipower’s part.

The blackout was the result of a failed transformer set up by the user itself, Lin said, noting that the power was restored once the user fixed the problem.
[FULL  STORY]

Dividend tax reform good for equityDividend tax reform good for equity

FOREIGN FOCUS:To rectify the unfair imputation tax system for local investors, a professor recommended raising the tax rate for foreign investors to 25 percent

Taipei Times
Date:  Sep 04, 2017
By: Staff writer, with CNA

The tax reform plan proposed by the Ministry of Finance is to encourage more local retail investors to enter the equity market and facilitate the development of the bourse, analysts and academics said.

The plan aims to ease equity investors’ financial burden by cutting their taxes on dividends they receive from investments in locally listed companies, Capital Securities Corp (群益證券) president Chao Yung-fei (趙永飛) said
.
Once the dividend income tax is lowered, the local equity market is to become more attractive to retail investors, who will be more willing to raise their equity holdings, Chao said. That could boost daily turnover in the local bourse, Chao said, adding that as long as turnover increases, securities brokerages will also benefit.
[FULL  STORY]

Confidence in equity market hits 2-year high: survey

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/09/02
By: Tien Yu-pin and Frances Huang

Taipei, Sept. 2 (CNA) Investor confidence in the stock market for the third quarter of

CNA file photo

this year rose to a new high in two years after the weighted index on the Taiwan Stock Exchange continued to move above the 10,000-point mark, according to a survey conducted by J.P. Morgan Asset Management.

In the survey, the equity confidence index for the July-September period rose 89.5, up 0.9 from a quarter earlier, marking the second consecutive quarter for the index to trend higher. The third-quarter figure was the highest since the second quarter of 2015, when the index stood at 106.4, J.P. Morgan said.

The sub-index for the weighted index movement, one of the equity confidence index’s six factors, rose to 92.9 in the third quarter, up 1.0 from a quarter earlier after a strong showing in the weighted index in recent sessions.    [FULL  STORY]

WCIT 2017 set to open Sept. 10 in Taipei

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/09/01
By: Ku Chuan and Y.F. Low

Taipei, Sept. 1 (CNA) Dubbed the Olympics of the international technology industry,

Image taken from World Congress on Information Technology’s website

the World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT) 2017 will be held in Taipei from Sept. 10-13, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Friday.

This year’s theme is “Living the Digital Dream,” addressing challenges and potential opportunities faced by digital economies and smart cities with particular reference to high-level policies, transformation strategies, technology application and business models, according to the ministry.

Over 900 foreign visitors from 80 countries are expected to attend, it added.
Of the more than 100 speakers featured at the congress, 32 are from Taiwan, including Vice Economics Minister Yang Wei-fuu (楊偉甫) and ministers-without-portfolio Wu Tsung-tsong (吳政忠), Audrey Tang (唐鳳) and John Deng (鄧振中), the ministry said.
[FULL  STORY]

Court orders assets seized in XPEC affair

INTERRUPTED:More than 10 people stand accused in the case involving accusations of fraud, and dubious and insider stock trading that features many prominent names

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 02, 2017
By: Lauly Li  /  Staff reporter

The Securities and Futures Investors Protection Center (SFIPC) yesterday confirmed that the Taipei District Court had imposed a provisional seizure of former Taipei deputy mayor Lee Yong-ping’s (李永萍) assets in a move to protect the interests of investors in XPEC Entertainment Inc (樂陞科技).

Lee is one of three former independent board directors at XPEC.

“I cannot elaborate on the details. All I can say is that it is a necessary move for the SFIPC to impose the asset seizure to keep defendants from eluding compensation payments,” SFIPC chairman Chiu Chin-ting (邱欽庭) said by telephone.
[FULL  STORY]