Taipei Times
Date: Jan 09, 2017
By: Staff writer, with CNA

Credit card spending in Taiwan reached the third-highest monthly level in November last year in the nation’s banking history, according to the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC).

Credit card holders in Taiwan spent NT$212.5 billion (US$6.64 billion) in November, up 6.46 percent from a month earlier and 14.93 percent from a year earlier, the commission said.

It was the third-highest figure in Taiwan’s banking history, after the NT$263.5 billion recorded in June last year and NT$242.5 billion in June 2015.

The increase in credit spending resulted partly from aggressive promotional campaigns launched by department stores to celebrate anniversaries, FSC Banking Bureau Deputy Director Sherri Chuang (莊秀媛) said.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/01/08
By: Chiu Po-sheng and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, Jan. 8 (CNA) Although the percentage of women in top-level positions in Taiwan businesses is at a record high, there is still a big gap in the ratio of male to female chief executive officers, a Ministry of Finance (MOF) official said Sunday, citing statistics from the ministry.

As of the end of 2015, there were approximately 1.33 million companies in Taiwan, 36.1 percent of which were headed by women, the official said.

However, although the percentage of female CEOs was the highest in Taiwan’s history, it still represented a wide gender gap and was only a 0.5 percentage point increase from 2010, according to the official.

In fact, the official said, the gender gap was most likely wider than about 28 percentage points since in some cases women are only nominal heads of businesses that are actually run by their husbands.    [FULL  STORY]

DEFYING WISDOM:New listings usually soar because of the honeymoon effect, but only four of the 60 newly listed companies last year raised more than NT$1 billion

Taipei Times
Date: Jan 09, 2017
By: Staff writer, with CNA

Funds raised from initial public offerings (IPOs) in Taiwan fell more than 30 percent annually last year, although the number of new listings on the local equity market rose slightly, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Taiwan.

In a report released on Tuesday last week, the accounting and consulting firm said NT$25.5 billion (US$797 million) was raised by IPOs on the local main board and the over-the-counter (OTC) market last year, a 32 percent annual decline.

Meanwhile, the number of companies that listed their shares for the first time on the main board and the OTC market last year was 60, two more than in 2015, PwC said.

The drop in the funds raised from IPOs last year was caused by newly listed companies often being small and medium-sized firms in the high-tech sector or in the cultural creative industry, the firm said.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-01-07

The Cabinet-level Consumer Protection Committee is inspecting price hikes that have followed an amendment to Taiwan’s labor law.

The law now requires employers to give staff one mandatory day off every week. A second day off every week is negotiable. Staff who elect to work on negotiable days are entitled to overtime pay. Some business owners have complained that the new requirements raise their costs, and forced them to raise prices. But there are concerns that some businesses are taking advantage of the change in the law as an opportunity to increase profits.

In addition to looking at prices, the Consumer Protection Committee will also look into the cost structure at businesses that have decided to charge higher prices. However, the committee said Saturday that it is postponing a decision to invite several business owners to the Cabinet to explain recent increases in prices.

In a press release on Saturday, the Cabinet said that the business owners will be have the opportunity to give explanations of cost structures in writing. According to the press release, if the Cabinet is satisfied with that the information they have received is complete, business owners might not be asked to come to the Cabinet to explain price increases in person.    [SOURCE]

Taipei Times
Date: Jan 07, 2017
By: Staff writer, with CNA
HTC Corp’s (宏達電) consolidated sales for last year fell 35 percent from the previous year, hitting their lowest level in 12 years.

In a statement issued yesterday, the company reported consolidated sales of NT$78.16 billion (US$2.44 billion) last year, the lowest level since it posted annual sales of NT$72.77 billion in 2005.

HTC’s annual sales had not fallen below NT$100 billion since then.

Last month, HTC’s sales reached NT$6.41 billion, down 16.42 percent from the NT$7.67 billion posted in November and 1.7 percent from the same period the previous year.    [FULL  STORY]

THREE-HORSE RACE:Inventec Solar Energy chairman Tom Cho, Inventec Appliance chairman Jackson Chang and Inventec president Huang Kuo-chun are the front-runners

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

Inventec Corp (英業達) chairman Richard Lee (李詩欽) yesterday said he is seeking a successor by June and hopes to lower the management’s average age to energize the company.

“The new chairman should be younger than 65 years old. I will make this happen at a board meeting in June,” the 69-year-old Lee told reporters ahead of a company event at the Nangang Exhibition Hall in Taipei.

Lee, who joined Inventec the year after it was established in 1975, has been chairman since founder Yeh Kuo-yi (葉國一) retired in 2008.

Under his leadership, Inventec secured smartphone orders from Chinese company Xiaomi Corp (小米) in 2010, merged its solar subsidiaries Inventec Solar Energy Corp (英穩達) and Inventec Energy Corp (英懋達) in 2015, and increased its server segment’s revenue contribution from less than 20 percent to between 35 and 40 percent last year.    [FULL  STORY]