Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/02/27
By: Wei Shu and Frances Huang

Taipei, Feb. 27 (CNA) Transactions of residential and commercial property in Taiwan has fallen about 25 percent year-on-year so far in February due to fewer working days in the month, where the Lunar New Year holiday fell, according to market statistics.

Citing the data, H&B Business Group (住商不動產), one of Taiwan’s leading real estate sales agencies, said that February was a traditional slow season for the local property market, and even worse, a strong earthquake hitting southern Tainan earlier in the month prompted many home buyers to stay on the sidelines amid concerns over safety.

A 6.4-magnitude quake rocked southern Taiwan at 3:57 a.m. on Feb. 6, toppling more than 10 buildings, all in Tainan. The temblor killed a total of 117 in Tainan and 115 out of the 117 died in the rubble of the Weiguan Jinlong residential complex, which was said to be built with substandard materials and methods.     [FULL  STORY]

Forbes
Date: FEB 26, 2016
By: Jean-Pierre Lehmann

The outcome of the acceptance by Japanese electronics giant Sharp of a USD $4.3bn takeover bid by Taiwanese multinational Foxconn remains to be seen. Its symbolic significance however could be quite extraordinary: will Japan’s notoriously insular economy, notably its notoriously ultra-insular electronics industry, be opening up to the outside world and especially to its East Asian neighbors?

When Sharp was founded in 1912, Taiwan was a Japanese colony. In the late 19th/early 20th century, Japan emerged as the only non-Western industrial and imperial power. In its ideological pursuit of what was termed Datsu-A (shedding Asia), Japan sought to join the Western powers both by colonizing its neighbors and by forming alliances with the West: Britain in 1902, Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy in 1940, and with the US since 1952.

Though Japan’s Asian empire collapsed with its defeat in 1945, it was rapidly rehabilitated by the US following the outbreak of the cold war and liberation of China; in the ensuing decades, it remained aloof from its Asian neighbors. Japan had Asian colonies. It has never had Asian allies.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/02/26
By: Huang Chaio-wen and Frances Huang

Taipei, Feb. 26 (CNA) Taiwan’s gasoline prices could move lower next week in the wake of a decline in international crude oil prices, market sources said Friday.

The weakness of the global oil market has been offset to some extent by hopes that major oil-producing countries will meet soon to discuss measures to cap production levels in a bid to rein in the falling prices, the sources said.

Based on the strength of the global oil market earlier this week, CPC Corp., Taiwan (中油) is likely to cut its gasoline prices by NT$0.1 (US$0.03) per liter next week, following a NT$0.9-per-liter rise set for this week, they said. However, the state-run oil supplier could leave its diesel prices unchanged.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-02-25
By: Sophia Yang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Japanese media on Thursday reported that the debt-plagued Japanese display maker Sharp Corp. has agreed to a takeover offer from Taiwanese company Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., better known as Foxconn, after a four-year wooing since 2012.

Struggling with chronic losses, the board of century-old Sharp has reportedly opted for Hon Hai to stay whole but under a foreign parent despite Innovation Network Corporation of Japan’s (INCJ) plan to restructure by spinning off businesses.

A successful deal would mean Hon Hai, the main assembler of Apple Inc.’s iPhone, is about to take over one of the largest suppliers of screens designed for high-end phones and tablets. The analysts indicated that Sharp owns key patents and techniques on displays. Among them, low temperature poly silicon (LTPS) LCD is the most valuable one for Hon Hai as its main client Apple Inc. purchases over 50 percent of global LTPS screens mainly produced by Japan’s Sharp, JDI, and Korea’s LG.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/02/25
By: Tien Yu-pin and Frances Huang

Taipei, Feb. 25 (CNA) The Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) will team up with the Taipei Exchange (TPEx) to hold a series of seminars in March to raise awareness of corporate governance among the listed companies in the local equity market.

The TWSE, which operates the local main board, and the TPEx, which operates the local over-the-counter (OTC) market, will hold five seminars in Taiwan to brief listed companies about a corporate governance evaluation system which has been in place in Taiwan for three years.

The TWSE said that since the launch of the corporate governance evaluation system, its assessment factors, and its evaluation scale and results have been closely followed by many of the listed companies in Taiwan.     [FULL  STORY]