■COFFEE SHOPS
85˚C plans share sale
85˚C Bakery Cafe (美食達人), which aims to expand its network in Taiwan to 180 stores this year, plans to sell shares for the first time as early as this year on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, the Chinese-language newspaper Apple Daily reported yesterday, citing company spokeswoman Cathy Chung (鐘靜如). Yuanta Securities Co (元大證券) is the underwriter for the sale, the report said.
■TOURISM
Chinese spent big: report
More than 600,000 Chinese tourists visited Taiwan last year, state-run media reported yesterday, amid warming relations between the two sides. The 606,100 visitors each spent nearly US$1,800 during their stay, tourism officials were quoted by the China Daily newspaper as saying. “Years of isolation between the two sides have made Taiwan an attractive place for mainland tourists,” said Zheng Lijuan, deputy general manager of a unit of travel group CITS International (中國國際旅行社).
■TELECOMS
China Mobile denies buyout
China Mobile Ltd (中國移動), the world’s biggest phone company by market value, denied a report that it was in talks to buy Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊). Tencent, operator of China’s biggest online chat software, is the country’s largest Internet company by market value. “We have no plans to buy Tencent,” Rainie Lei (雷雨), a spokeswoman at China Mobile, said by telephone yesterday. China’s DoNews.com reported on Friday that China Mobile chairman Wang Jianzhou (王建宙) visited Tencent’s headquarters in Shenzhen to discuss a possible takeover, citing people it didn’t identify.
■AUTOMAKERS
Hyundai puts out plant fire
Hyundai Motor Co has extinguished a blaze that broke out at a plant in Ulsan yesterday, South Korea’s largest automaker said. The fire occurred at about 11:25am, Hyundai said in an e-mail. Police are investigating the cause of the blaze, the automaker said. The fire damaged a cooling tower at the plant, which makes Hyundai’s sport-utility vehicles Santa Fe and Tucson, Yonhap News reported. The incident won’t affect production, the company said. No one was injured in the fire, Hyundai said. The plant is about 400km south of Seoul.
■ECONOMY
Indonesia beats forecasts
Indonesia’s budget deficit totaled 87.2 trillion rupiah (US$9.3 billion), or 1.6 percent of GDP, last year, less than a forecast 129.8 trillion rupiah, the Finance Ministry said on its Web site on Friday. Revenues and grants totaled 866.8 trillion rupiah, or 0.5 percent below the estimate, while spending amounted to 954 trillion rupiah, or 4.7 percent less than targeted, it said. Indonesia’s economy probably grew 4.3 percent to 4.4 percent last year, while inflation last year was “about 3 percent,” the statement said.
■INSURANCE
Allianz predicts recovery
Germany’s insurance giant Allianz foresees a massive recovery for the country’s economy this year, with growth exceeding official forecasts and unemployment rising only marginally, a report said on Friday. The daily Bild quoted the group’s chief economist Michael Heise as saying growth would reach 2.8 percent, comfortably above the German central bank’s prediction of 1.6 percent and the strongest since 2006. He said the good performance would be spurred by a boom in exports, stable domestic consumption, government recovery programs and recent tax cuts.
Taiwan would remain in the same international network for carrying out cross-border payments and would not be marginalized on the world stage, despite jostling among international powers, central bank Governor Yang Chin-long (楊金龍) said yesterday. Yang made the remarks during a speech at an annual event organized by Financial Information Service Co (財金資訊), which oversees Taiwan’s banking, payment and settlement systems. “The US dollar will remain the world’s major cross-border payment tool, given its high liquidity, legality and safe-haven status,” Yang said. Russia is pushing for a new cross-border payment system and highlighted the issue during a BRICS summit in October. The existing system
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to grow its revenue by about 25 percent to a new record high next year, driven by robust demand for advanced technologies used in artificial intelligence (AI) applications and crypto mining, International Data Corp (IDC) said yesterday. That would see TSMC secure a 67 percent share of the world’s foundry market next year, from 64 percent this year, IDC senior semiconductor research manager Galen Zeng (曾冠瑋) predicted. In the broader foundry definition, TSMC would see its market share rise to 36 percent next year from 33 percent this year, he said. To address concerns
Intel Corp chief financial officer Dave Zinsner said that a formal separation of the company’s factory and product development divisions is an open question that would be decided by the chipmaker’s next leader. Zinsner, who is serving as interim co-CEO following this month’s ouster of Pat Gelsinger, made the remarks on Thursday at the Barclays technology conference in San Francisco alongside co-CEO Michelle Johnston Holthaus. Intel’s struggles to keep pace with rivals — along with its deteriorating financial condition — have spurred speculation that the next CEO would make dramatic changes. That has included talk of a split of the company’s manufacturing
PROTECTIONISM: The tariffs would go into effect on Jan. 1 and are meant to protect the US’ clean energy sector from unfair Chinese practices, the US trade chief said US President Joe Biden’s administration plans to raise tariffs on solar wafers, polysilicon and some tungsten products from China to protect US clean energy businesses. The notice from the Office of US Trade Representative (USTR) said tariffs on Chinese-made solar wafers and polysilicon would rise to 50 percent from 25 percent and duties on certain tungsten products would increase from zero to 25 percent, effective on Jan. 1, following a review of Chinese trade practices under Section 301 of the US Trade Act of 1974. The decision followed a public comment period after the USTR said in September that it was considering
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