Taiwan News
Date: 2016-04-07
By: Central News Agency

Taipei, April 7 (CNA) Taipei 101, the landmark skyscraper in Taipei’s Xinyi District, and E-Da World, one of the largest shopping malls in southern Taiwan, have been working with China’s WeChat on mobile payments, the two shopping centers said Thursday.

Since WeChat, or Weixin as it is known in China, is the flagship mobile social messaging app of Chinese e-commerce operator Tencent Holdings Ltd., the cooperation with the messaging service provider’s payment platform WeChat Payment is expected to attract Chinese tourists visiting Taiwan, the two shopping centers said.

According to Taipei 101 and E-Da World, WeChat has 697 million active users. On the back of such a large customer base, business opportunities through the cooperation with the WeChat Payment platform, which is a peer-to-peer transfer and electronic bill payment system, is expected to be tremendous.     [FULL  STORY]

FOOD INFLATION:The DGBAS said a rise in food costs was because of poor weather in February, and said that a core CPI of 0.79 percent indicated benign inflation levels

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 08, 2016
By: Crystal Hsu / Staff reporter

The nation’s consumer price index (CPI) rose 2 percent last month from a year earlier as cold weather continued to drive up food costs, with vegetable and fruit prices staying at a 21-year high, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.

It is the second consecutive month the inflationary gauge has hit the 2 percent level, but the statistics agency dismissed concerns, saying the phenomenon would prove to short-lived once weather disruptions fade.

“Last month saw little correction in vegetable prices due to lingering supply disruptions, even though holiday demand subsided,” DGBAS Deputy Director Tsai Yu-tai (蔡鈺泰) told a news conference.

Vegetable prices surged 79.1 percent year-on-year last month, little changed from an 81 percent increase in February, as humid weather and inadequate sunlight thwarted supply, Tsai said.     [FULL  STORY]

MARKETING:Picking Theratechnologies over bigger global firms assures TaiMed that its TMB355 HIV/AIDS drug would be given ‘top priority,’ the company said

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 07, 2016
By: Ted Chen / Staff reporter

TaiMed Biologics Inc (中裕新藥) yesterday downplayed concerns about the company’s choice of distribution partner for its new HIV/AIDS drug TMB355, citing a robust business plan and advantages in tax management.

The company last month announced that it had inked an exclusive 12-year contract with Montreal-based Theratechnologies Inc to market its new drug in the US and Canada.

Analysts were downbeat on the partnership, casting doubts on the Canadian company’s ability to market the new drug compared with large companies.

“While Theratechnologies might not be a big name, marketing our product would be the company’s top priority,” TaiMed chief financial officer James Chen (陳怡成) said at an investors’ conference in Taipei.

Chen said larger companies might not be as motivated in marketing TMB355, as they tend to have many products in the mix, including their own new drug development initiatives.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 06, 2016
By: Lauly Li / Staff reporter

Catcher Technology Co (可成) yesterday said business would be better this quarter and the momentum would sustain into the second half, referencing the company’s typical business cycle.

“We maintain our view that the first quarter of this year will be a low point, and that business will grow quarter-by-quarter for the rest of the year,” Catcher spokesman James Wu (巫俊毅) said by telephone.

Wu’s remarks came after the metal casing supplier posted revenue of NT$16.84 billion (US$520.11 million) for the first quarter, representing a 3.2 percent year-on-year decline and below the company’s forecast of NT$17.4 billion.     [FULL  STORY]

BUILDING MOMENTUM:Largan expects an increasing number of its clients to adopt dual-camera lenses this year, a trend it hopes to reap benefits from in the long term

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 06, 2016
By: Lauly Li / Staff reporter

Camera lens supplier Largan Precision Co (大立光) yesterday forecast sales would be flat this month, following a significant year-on-year decline in revenues in the first quarter.

“We expect this month’s sales to be flat or lower than last month’s NT$3.02 billion [US$93.27 million], due to seasonal factors and weak demand from many clients,” a Largan investor relations official said by telephone.

The company’s revenue fell 21.73 percent to NT$8.7 billion in the first quarter from NT$10.56 billion in the same period last year, falling short of Morgan Stanley’s estimate of NT$9.61 billion.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-04-04
By: Central News Agency

The Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) recently held a forum on the Taiwan Stewardship Code, hoping to get institutional investors to make a greater commitment to improving their corporate governance.

Institutional investors hold nearly 50 percent of the market value of Taiwan’s stock market and trade about half of all shares traded every day, demonstrating their importance to the stability and development of the equity market, the TWSE said.

Jamie Allen, secretary general of the Hong Kong-based Asian Corporate Governance Association, said at the March 29 meeting that while some investors paid attention to corporate governance in Australia in the 1980s and in the U.K. in the 1990s, it was not until 2010 that Britain set up its stewardship code.     [FULL  STORY]

CUSTOMERS AT WORK:There fewer holidays last month compared with February, which allowed new car sales to increase by 20,000 in the last week of the month

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 05, 2016
By: Aileen Chuang / Staff reporter

New car sales picked up sharply last month from February as promotion campaigns by dealers and the government’s subsidy policy paid off.

New car sales reached 37,589 units last month, indicating a 74.3 percent increase from February’s 21,561 units, Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) data showed.

Both Hotai Motor Co (和泰汽車) and China Motor Corp (CMC, 中華汽車), the nation’s leading car dealers, reported double-digit percentage increases from a year ago.

The increase had much to do with the government stimulus that provides NT$50,000 (US$1,544) in subsidies for new car buyers.     [FULL  STORY]