Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) is expected to complete its acquisition of Taoyuan’s Taimall Family Entertainment Shopping Mall (台茂購物中心) late next month, a Taimall executive said yesterday.
“If both parties follow up the deal’s procedures smoothly, we can expect to close it in mid or late October,” Taimall general manager David Kuo (郭大睿) said yesterday by telephone.
Kuo declined to divulge more details, citing confidentiality.
He was tight-lipped about whether the deal was worth NT$6.6 billion (US$204.85 million) as media outlets reported yesterday.
The Chinese-language Commercial Times reported yesterday that GIC plans to spend another NT$6.6 billion to take over the shopping mall’s ownership after having a 10 percent stake.
The Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) reported on Sunday that Taimall was “satisfied with the offer” since the mall has an estimated net worth of NT$7 billion including its seven-story building and 15,125 ping (5 hectares) of land.
Launched in 1997 with a working capital of NT$3.356 billion, Taimall began to turn a profit in 2004, reaching NT$2.8 billion in revenues last year, the report said, adding that the deal would be GIC’s first acquisition of a shopping mall in Taiwan after having acquired shopping centers in Australia and England.
Once GIC completes its acquisition of Taimall, the mall’s employees would be retained although their seniority would be recalculated, the paper said.
As of press time, GIC had not returned calls for further confirmation.
Established in 1981, GIC is a global investment management firm that manages Singapore’s foreign reserves and invests internationally in equities, commodities, money markets, real estate and private equity, the company says on its Web site. Since its inception, GIC has grown from managing a few billion dollars to more than US$100 billion today.
Taiwan’s technology protection rules prohibits Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) from producing 2-nanometer chips abroad, so the company must keep its most cutting-edge technology at home, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks in response to concerns that TSMC might be forced to produce advanced 2-nanometer chips at its fabs in Arizona ahead of schedule after former US president Donald Trump was re-elected as the next US president on Tuesday. “Since Taiwan has related regulations to protect its own technologies, TSMC cannot produce 2-nanometer chips overseas currently,” Kuo said at a meeting of the legislature’s
TECH WAR CONTINUES: The suspension of TSMC AI chips and GPUs would be a heavy blow to China’s chip designers and would affect its competitive edge Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, is reportedly to halt supply of artificial intelligence (AI) chips and graphics processing units (GPUs) made on 7-nanometer or more advanced process technologies from next week in order to comply with US Department of Commerce rules. TSMC has sent e-mails to its Chinese AI customers, informing them about the suspension starting on Monday, Chinese online news outlet Ijiwei.com (愛集微) reported yesterday. The US Department of Commerce has not formally unveiled further semiconductor measures against China yet. “TSMC does not comment on market rumors. TSMC is a law-abiding company and we are
FLEXIBLE: Taiwan can develop its own ground station equipment, and has highly competitive manufacturers and suppliers with diversified production, the MOEA said The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) yesterday disputed reports that suppliers to US-based Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) had been asked to move production out of Taiwan. Reuters had reported on Tuesday last week that Elon Musk-owned SpaceX had asked their manufacturers to produce outside of Taiwan given geopolitical risks and that at least one Taiwanese supplier had been pushed to relocate production to Vietnam. SpaceX’s requests place a renewed focus on the contentious relationship Musk has had with Taiwan, especially after he said last year that Taiwan is an “integral part” of China, sparking sharp criticism from Taiwanese authorities. The ministry said
US President Joe Biden’s administration is racing to complete CHIPS and Science Act agreements with companies such as Intel Corp and Samsung Electronics Co, aiming to shore up one of its signature initiatives before US president-elect Donald Trump enters the White House. The US Department of Commerce has allocated more than 90 percent of the US$39 billion in grants under the act, a landmark law enacted in 2022 designed to rebuild the domestic chip industry. However, the agency has only announced one binding agreement so far. The next two months would prove critical for more than 20 companies still in the process
RSS