BEFORE THE FALL:Despite its bumper Q2, the firm expects rocky times ahead, with the Greek debt crisis, China’s stock market rout and the strong US dollar softening demand

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 30, 2015
By: Lauly Li  /  Staff reporter

Siliconware Precision Industrial Co (SPIL, 矽品精密), the world’s No. 2 chip packager, yesterday said net profit for last quarter was its highest quarterly showing in five-and-a-half years, but it expected revenue to decline 12.42 percent sequentially this quarter due to weak demand amid a longer-than-expected inventory correction.

Revenue is expected to drop to between NT$18.6 billion (US$590.05 million) and NT$19.8 billion this quarter from last quarter’s NT$21.24 billion, chairman Bough Lin (林文伯) told an investors’ teleconference.

“Inventory digestion is very slow, mainly due to weaker-than-expected smartphone demand in emerging markets, therefore most of our clients are very cautious about placing new orders,” Lin said.     [FULL  STORY]

Date: 27 July,2015

TAIPEI (AFP) – Formosa Plastics Group, a leading Taiwanese manufacturing conglomerate, said Monday one of its top executives had resigned over a years-long bribery scandal involving a supplier.

The conglomerate said in a statement that 25 employees were suspected of taking payments from a supplier, including Lin Chen-jung, president of Formosa Plastics Corp.

“After an initial investigation, some of the employees involved admitted offences against company rules,” Formosa Plastics Group said in the statement.

“Lin offered to resign as the president and a board member on Friday, and the company has approved.”

The statement did not say whether Lin had admitted any guilt.

Taipei-based Apple Daily said a whistle-blower had spurred management to launch an inquiry into the scandal, which the newspaper said was the worst of its kind since the company s founding more than 60 years ago.

Apple Daily said more people could yet be implicated in the collective kickback scandal, which reportedly began seven years ago.

Local media said prosecutors have looked into the case, but the group did not comment when contacted by AFP.

The group, whose businesses include oil refineries, power plants and hospitals, as well as the manufacturing of memory chips, has more than 108,000 staff on its payroll, with combined revenues totalling Tw$2.46 trillion ($78.2 billion) in 2013.

Taiwan News
Date: 2015-03-09
By: Central News Agency

Taipei, March 9 (CNA) Taiwan’s economy continues to grow slowly despite the data showing a decline in two major indices in February, an economist said Monday.

The monthly 5.7 percentage point slide in the purchasing managers index (PMI) to 47.8 percent in February and the 3.1 percentage point drop in the non-manufacturing index (NMI) to 50.8 percent reflected the slowdown of industrial and commercial activities in Taiwan last month, Wu Chung-shu, president of the Chung-Hua Institute for Economic Research (CIER), said. At a press conference Monday after the release of a CIER report, Wu said that prior to February the NMI had been expanding seven months in a row.      [FULL STORY]

BRIBERY?Group members could see diminished investor confidence and closer scrutiny of their capital-raising applications because of the scandal

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 28, 2015
By: Ted Chen  /  Staff reporter

Formosa Plastics Group’s (FPG, 台塑集團) corporate governance could see a ratings downgrade after the group confirmed yesterday that several executives and employees had resigned amid a bribery scandal.

In addition, the conglomerate’s oversight might affect its major subsidiaries’ capital increase applications in the future, the Securities and Futures Bureau said.

“We will express our reservations toward FPG subsidiaries’ future capital increase applications if criminal charges are filed against those executives,” a bureau official who declined to be named said by telephone, after the group was engulfed in the biggest bribery scandal in its 61-year history.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2015-07-26
By: Ko Lin, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), in collaboration with the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), will be heading a seminar this coming August to mark the 20th anniversary of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) founding agreements, reports said Sunday.

The event will also see the participation of the nation’s former representatives, Yen Ching-chang and Lin Yi-fu, to the WTO since Taiwan joined the trade body in 2002

As the 142nd member admitted to the WTO over a decade ago, the Republic of China joined the trade governing body under the name “Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu (Chinese Taipei)” due to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) One-China policy.     [FULL  STORY]