Lite-On secures loan
Lite-On Technology Corp (光寶科技), the world’s second-largest maker of mobile phone keypads, said yesterday it had signed a five-year NT$15 billion (US$470 million) syndicated loan contract with Citibank and 14 other banks.
The contract also includes a syndicated loan of 100 million euros (US$147.5 million) to Lite-On’s Finland-based subsidiary, Perlos Corp — the world’s largest handset casing maker — the company said in a press release.
The loan was oversubscribed by nearly 30 percent, showing the financial sector’s support of Lite-On Group despite current economic difficulties, Citi said in a separate statement.
Citi said the NT dollar loan’s size expanded from originally planned NT$12 billion to eventual NT$15 billion, considering the oversubscription and the company’s financing need.
The interest rate of the five-year NT dollar syndicated loan is set by adding 55 basis points on the 90-day Taiwanese subprime commercial paper’s interest rate. For the euro part, the rate is set by adding 67.5 basic points on Euro Libor.
The 14 other banks taking part in the loan include Taipei Fubon Bank (富邦銀行), Chinatrust Commercial Bank (中信銀) and Bank SinoPac (永豐銀行).
Asian banks doing OK: Fitch
Asian banks outside Japan generally performed well in the first half of this year, but face challenges arising from external shocks and the slowdown in their domestic economies and in global growth, Fitch Ratings said yesterday.
Fitch said banks in Asia except Japan achieved good levels of profitability, stable or improving asset quality and adequate or strong capitalization in the first half.
But global economic slowdown will inevitably negatively impact the region’s financial sector.
Fitch expects growth to slow in emerging Asia this year, but to a still robust 8 percent, led by growth in China.
The rating agency expects to see slower growth in lending and underlying earnings and a modest increase in non-performing loans from their recent lows.
However, the extent of the global slowdown is not yet clear, Fitch said.
FSC backs easing cash margins
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) gave a preliminary approval yesterday to the Taiwan Futures Exchange’s proposal to relax restrictions on cash margins, which investors are required to put down for futures trading.
The exchange will impose a 50 percent cap on cash margins, which could now be paid with current securities, the commission said at a press briefing, while detailing limits on types of securities including stocks, bonds and international securities to be used as future margins.
The commission expects the proposal to help enhance futures traders’ capital use efficiency while boosting market liquidity by attracting more foreign investors to participate the futures trading.
Government plans bond sales
The government plans to sell NT$100 billion in bonds in the fourth quarter to help fund spending, the Ministry of Finance said.
In the last three months of last year, the government sold NT$113.3 billion in bonds.
The ministry plans to auction NT$30 billion in five-year bonds on Oct. 24, NT$30 billion in 20-year debt on Nov. 25 and NT$40 billion in 10-year securities on Dec. 23, the ministry said in a statement posted on its Web site yesterday.
NT dollar gains
The New Taiwan dollar gained ground against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, rising NT$0.093 to close at NT$31.937. Turnover was US$1.832 billion.
EXTRATERRITORIAL REACH: China extended its legal jurisdiction to ban some dual-use goods of Chinese origin from being sold to the US, even by third countries Beijing has set out to extend its domestic laws across international borders with a ban on selling some goods to the US that applies to companies both inside and outside China. The new export control rules are China’s first attempt to replicate the extraterritorial reach of US and European sanctions by covering Chinese products or goods with Chinese parts in them. In an announcement this week, China declared it is banning the sale of dual-use items to the US military and also the export to the US of materials such as gallium and germanium. Companies and people overseas would be subject to
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) founder Morris Chang (張忠謀) yesterday said that Intel Corp would find itself in the same predicament as it did four years ago if its board does not come up with a core business strategy. Chang made the remarks in response to reporters’ questions about the ailing US chipmaker, once an archrival of TSMC, during a news conference in Taipei for the launch of the second volume of his autobiography. Intel unexpectedly announced the immediate retirement of former chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger last week, ending his nearly four-year tenure and ending his attempts to revive the
WORLD DOMINATION: TSMC’s lead over second-placed Samsung has grown as the latter faces increased Chinese competition and the end of clients’ product life cycles Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) retained the No. 1 title in the global pure-play wafer foundry business in the third quarter of this year, seeing its market share growing to 64.9 percent to leave South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co, the No. 2 supplier, further behind, Taipei-based TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said in a report. TSMC posted US$23.53 billion in sales in the July-September period, up 13.0 percent from a quarter earlier, which boosted its market share to 64.9 percent, up from 62.3 percent in the second quarter, the report issued on Monday last week showed. TSMC benefited from the debut of flagship
TENSE TIMES: Formosa Plastics sees uncertainty surrounding the incoming Trump administration in the US, geopolitical tensions and China’s faltering economy Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), Taiwan’s largest industrial conglomerate, yesterday posted overall revenue of NT$118.61 billion (US$3.66 billion) for last month, marking a 7.2 percent rise from October, but a 2.5 percent fall from one year earlier. The group has mixed views about its business outlook for the current quarter and beyond, as uncertainty builds over the US power transition and geopolitical tensions. Formosa Plastics Corp (台灣塑膠), a vertically integrated supplier of plastic resins and petrochemicals, reported a monthly uptick of 15.3 percent in its revenue to NT$18.15 billion, as Typhoon Kong-rey postponed partial shipments slated for October and last month, it said. The
RSS