Vita Genomics Inc (賽亞基因科技), Taiwan’s biggest genomics-based biotechnological and biopharmaceutical company, aims to double its profits this year through the acquisition of domestic testing facilities and partnerships with global drug makers, company executives said yesterday.
The New Taipei City-based company recorded a modest NT$103 million (US$3.3 million) in net income last year, translating into earnings per share of NT$2.37, according to the company’s Web site.
The figures represent an end to 13 years of losses after the unlisted company last year recruited Vita Genomics general manager Eddy Hsieh (謝春成), who introduced a financial restructuring plan and shut down unprofitable businesses.
Hsieh also helped the company recognize intangible assets, including establishing a database among other innovations, the company said.
The process of reinvention is set to continue, with a capital increase plan slated for June, with which the company hopes to raise about NT$800 million by issuing 60,000 common shares priced at NT$13 per share, Hsieh said.
The capital injection is almost twice the current capitalization of NT$460 million.
Domestic and foreign hedge funds have voiced interest in purchasing the 13-year-old company’s stock.
“Vita Genomics plans to use the money to develop into a healthcare services provider, integrating firms in the supply chain,” Hsieh said.
The company is set to increase its pharmaceutical partners from four to seven and has inked three-year cooperation agreements with five global drug makers, Vita Genomics said, without disclosing details.
The partnerships are set to allow the company to move into the companion test business, boosting its corporate value, Hsieh said.
In Taiwan, Vita Genomics has struck acquisition deals with five genomics testing facilities and is in talks to buy a large pathology-testing laboratory later this year, the company said.
“The testing business should be a key profit driver this year after the integration,” Hsieh said.
The testing business now generates NT$200 million in revenue, the company said, adding that the amount is expected to double in the second quarter and approach NT$600 million in the second half.
In addition, Vita Genomics has built strong relationships with research institutions and medical organizations throughout the nation.
The company is an active participant in modernizing the nation’s healthcare system and is establishing the infrastructure needed to add molecular profile information to the National Health Insurance IC card.
Vita Genomics is also plans set up a healthcare team that would help conduct annual checkups of students and workers at schools and private companies, the company said, adding that the venture could generate another NT$100 million in revenue.
ADVANCED: Previously, Taiwanese chip companies were restricted from building overseas fabs with technology less than two generations behind domestic factories Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp, would no longer be restricted from investing in next-generation 2-nanometer chip production in the US, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. However, the ministry added that the world’s biggest contract chipmaker would not be making any reckless decisions, given the weight of its up to US$30 billion investment. To safeguard Taiwan’s chip technology advantages, the government has barred local chipmakers from making chips using more advanced technologies at their overseas factories, in China particularly. Chipmakers were previously only allowed to produce chips using less advanced technologies, specifically
BRAVE NEW WORLD: Nvidia believes that AI would fuel a new industrial revolution and would ‘do whatever we can’ to guide US AI policy, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Tuesday said he is ready to meet US president-elect Donald Trump and offer his help to the incoming administration. “I’d be delighted to go see him and congratulate him, and do whatever we can to make this administration succeed,” Huang said in an interview with Bloomberg Television, adding that he has not been invited to visit Trump’s home base at Mar-a-Lago in Florida yet. As head of the world’s most valuable chipmaker, Huang has an opportunity to help steer the administration’s artificial intelligence (AI) policy at a moment of rapid change.
TARIFF SURGE: The strong performance could be attributed to the growing artificial intelligence device market and mass orders ahead of potential US tariffs, analysts said The combined revenue of companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange and the Taipei Exchange for the whole of last year totaled NT$44.66 trillion (US$1.35 trillion), up 12.8 percent year-on-year and hit a record high, data compiled by investment consulting firm CMoney showed on Saturday. The result came after listed firms reported a 23.92 percent annual increase in combined revenue for last month at NT$4.1 trillion, the second-highest for the month of December on record, and posted a 15.63 percent rise in combined revenue for the December quarter at NT$12.25 billion, the highest quarterly figure ever, the data showed. Analysts attributed the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) quarterly sales topped estimates, reinforcing investor hopes that the torrid pace of artificial intelligence (AI) hardware spending would extend into this year. The go-to chipmaker for Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc reported a 39 percent rise in December-quarter revenue to NT$868.5 billion (US$26.35 billion), based on calculations from monthly disclosures. That compared with an average estimate of NT$854.7 billion. The strong showing from Taiwan’s largest company bolsters expectations that big tech companies from Alphabet Inc to Microsoft Corp would continue to build and upgrade datacenters at a rapid clip to propel AI development. Growth accelerated for
RSS