Business and Finance

Taiwan shares move in consolidation

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-08-18
By: Frances Huang, Central News Agency

Taipei, Aug. 18 (CNA) Shares in Taiwan closed little changed Thursday after moving in consolidation mode, as many investors turned wary of whether foreign institutional investors would continue to move funds on a large scale into the country, dealers said.

Sentiment become cautious, with investors continuing to cut their holdings in large-cap stocks, in particular in the bellwether electronics sector, while buying in the financial sector, led by CTBC Financial Holding Co. , lent support to the broader market, the dealers said.

The weighted index on the Taiwan Stock Exchange ended up 4.80 points, or 0.05 percent, at 9,122.50, after moving between 9,093.51 and 9,128.80, on turnover of NT$77.69 billion (US$2.47 billion).     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwanese banks see rapid profit growth from Southeast Asian markets

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/08/18
By: Tsai Yi-chu and Y.F. Low

Taipei, Aug. 18 (CNA) Taiwanese banks generated NT$16.29 billion (US$518 million) in 201608180030t0001overseas profits in the first half of this year, with Southeast Asian markets seeing the most rapid growth, according to statistics released Thursday by the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC).

Between January and June, Taiwanese banks made NT$4 billion in profits from Southeast Asian markets, reaching 74 percent of last year’s total of NT$5.39 billion, the FSC said.

During the same period, the banks obtained profits of NT$7.95 billion from other Asian markets excluding Southeast Asia, NT$3.88 billion from Americas and NT$760 million from Europe, the commission said.

Losses of NT$50 million, however, were incurred in the Chinese market.     [FULL  STORY]

GlobalWafers to acquire SunEdison

MAXIMUM SYNERGY:The company said it has been scouting for partners since last year to reach its targeted position in the marketplace, advancing from No. 6 to No. 3

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 19, 2016
By: Lisa Wang / Staff reporter

GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓) yesterday said it would become the world’s third-largest silicon wafer supplier, after the company reached an agreement to buy SunEdison Semiconductor Ltd for US$683 million.

It was the second acquisition launched by GlobalWafers this year after the company in May announced it would buy a silicon wafer division of Topsil Semiconductor Materials A/S for 320 million kroner (US$48.73 million).

GlobalWafers has set a target to boost its global position from No. 6 to No. 3, but “this goal will not be reached by organic growth or capacity expansion,” company chairperson Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) told a media briefing in Taipei.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan’s science parks’ revenue falls in H1

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/08/17
By: Lin Meng-ju and Romulo Huang

Taipei, Aug. 17 (CNA) Taiwan’s three major science-based industrial parks, home to the 201608170027t0001country’s mainstay semiconductor and electronics industries, reported a 4.89 percent year-on-year decline in revenue in the first half of the year, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) said Wednesday.

Production revenue at the three parks totaled NT$1.078 trillion (US$34.2 billion) in the first six months of this year, down from the NT$1.134 trillion registered a year ago, the MOST said.

The output of Hsinchu Science Park fell by 10.02 percent year-on-year to NT$492.3 billion in the first half of this year, while that of Central Taiwan Science Park dipped by 1.98 percent to NT$236.9 billion and Southern Taiwan Science Park bucked the declining trend by recording a yearly increase of 1.2 percent with the six-month revenue of NT$348.8 billion, MOST statistics showed.

Among the industries in the science parks, the optoelectronic industry suffered the steepest drop in revenue, recording a yearly decline of 17.81 percent, the manufacturing of computer and peripherals dipped by 6.94 percent and the IC industry fell by 0.41 percent.  [FULL  STORY]

Acer BYOC boss to hand on post: report

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 18, 2016
By: Lauly Li / Staff reporter

Acer Inc’s (宏碁) Build Your Own Cloud (BYOC) chief architect Stan Shih (施振榮) plans to pass on his post to his son Maverick Shih (施宣輝) next year, the Chinese-language Next Magazine reported yesterday.

“Acer chairman George Huang (黃少華) is to retire and chief executive officer Jason Chen (陳俊聖) is double as chairman next year, and I will handover my post to Maverick in one year,” the magazine quoted Stan Shih as saying.

Stan Shih, founder and former chairman of Acer, retired from the company for the first time in 2004 and briefly returned as chairman in 2013, after Acer posted losses in 2011 and 2012.

Shih handed over the chairmanship to Huang in June 2014 and has been the chief architect of the company’s cloud-computing business since then.     [FULL  STORY]

Cathay Pacific H1 profit drops amid China slowdown

The China Post
Date: August 18, 2016
By: AFP

HONG KONG — Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific said Wednesday its first-half profit dropped 82 percent from a year earlier, with the company hit by an economic slowdown in China and increasing competition from its peers.

Net profit for the first six months of the year plummeted to HK$353 million (US$45.52 million).

It compared to the HK$1.97 billion recorded in the same period last year and largely fell short of the HK$1.07 billion median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of four analysts.

Revenue for the period also fell 9.3 percent to HK$45.68 billion.     [FULL  STORY]

CPC fuel prices to drop by NT$0.6 Monday

Focus Taiwein
Date: 2016/07/31 17:02:09
By Chen Cheng-wei and Romulo Huang

The decision to lower domestic fuel prices is reflective of international crude oil prices, 201607310012t0001which fell last week due to lingering concerns over a global supply glut and an unexpected increase in oil inventories in the U.S. market.

The U.S. crude inventories rose by 1.67 million barrels to 521.1 million last week, the first increase in 10 weeks, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration   The decision to lower domestic fuel prices is reflective of international crude oil prices, which fell last week due to lingering concerns over a global supply glut and an unexpected increase in oil inventories in the U.S. market.     [FULL  STORY]

Can Peter Bellew fix Malaysia Airlines this time?

Taipei Times
Date: August 1, 2016
By: B.K. Sidhu, The Star/000 Asia News Network

Malaysia — There were doubts when Peter Bellew got the top job at Malaysia Airlines Bhd (MAS).

When his name topped the list as the candidate to take over from Christoph Mueller as the chief executive officer (CEO), many wondered if he was cut out for the job. Simply put, they felt his expertise was in the area of low-cost aviation and not in the premium segment, fearing that as the airline was being nursed back to health, it might regress.

The work Mueller had started was incomplete and more needed to be fixed.

Branding and perception are still the biggest challenges. MAS has gone through a roller-coaster ride over the past few years. Having reported years of losses due to a high cost base and not selling enough seats, its income was simply not enough to cover its cost.

After undertaking so many restructuring programs to address its finances, none of them worked. What pushed MAS into a tailspin was the two air disasters in 2014, unprecedented and shocking at the same time, which made it very difficult for it to stay on course.

MAS’ problem, apart from cost, was that it was flying to places where the yields were not as attractive. It had too many employees and its issues were fundamental in nature, which without a clean-up, would have been near impossible to correct.     [FULL  STORY]

EBC takeover flounders over price

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-07-27
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Eastern Media International Corporation was canceling the

DMG Entertainment chief Dan Mintz.

DMG Entertainment chief Dan Mintz.

planned sale of its stake in television group Eastern Broadcasting Company to China-affiliated DMG Entertainment because the prospective buyer wanted to reduce the price, reports said Wednesday.

Last December, Eastern Media announced it was planning to sell its stake of 21.32 percent in EBC for about US$600 million (NT$18.3 billion) to EBC Acquisition, a firm set up in the Cayman Islands by DMG chief Dan Mintz.

At the same time, EBC majority stakeholder, the Carlyle Group from the United States, was going to sell its 60-percent share to DMG for another US$600 million, reports said.     [FULL  STORY]

‘Smart’ cider brewer developed by Taiwanese startup well-received

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/07/27
By: Chung Jung-feng and Elaine Hou

Taipei, July 27 (CNA) A “smart” home cider brewer developed by a Taiwanese startup

From Kickstarter website.

From Kickstarter website.

has been well-received on the global project crowdfunding website Kickstarter, collecting more than US$33,000 shortly after the project was launched on the platform, according to the startup team.

Alchema, a startup that aims to make craft cider at home easy, launched the project on Kickstarter July 26 to promote its smart cider brewer, said Alchema Vice President Lin Po-fu (林柏甫).

The team’s original target was to collect US$80,000 within 45 days, but to the team’s surprise, more than US$33,000 was collected just within one day of the launch of the project, Lin said.     [FULL  STORY]