Tingyi (Cayman Islands) Holding Corp’s (康師傅控股) Taiwan depositary receipts (TDR) yesterday slid 0.51 percent to NT$19.40 in Taipei trading after the company — the parent of China-based Master Kong Holdings (康師傅) — on Monday confirmed that it was dissolving its Taiwan operations.
Ting Hsin International Group (頂新集團), which was involved in a series of food scandals in 2014 and 2015, was in charge of Master Kong’s instant noodle business in Taiwan.
The group’s board of directors has approved a plan to completely withdraw from the Taiwanese market, Ting Hsin’s vice president for public affairs Chia Hsien-der (賈先德) told reporters on Monday.
The dissolution would not affect the company’s TDR trading on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, Chia said.
Master Kong still needs to finish liquidating its assets and to submit an investment withdrawal application to the Investment Commission to complete its dissolution, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said.
A company official, who declined to be named, yesterday said that the China-based instant noodle brand had terminated its production contract with the group’s Wei Chuan Foods Corp (味全食品) after a series of oil safety scandals that sparked a boycott of Ting Hsin food products.
Master Kong stopped distributing its instant noodles in Taiwan in 2015, the official said by telephone.
“Master Kong has no plans to step into the Taiwanese market again in the near term,” he said, citing fierce market competition.
As for its China business, the official said that the company is also facing tough challenges because of weakening demand for instant noodles.
In the first three quarters of last year, Master Kong’s revenue fell 9.44 percent to US$6.91 billion from a year ago and its net profit plunged 37.85 percent to US$213 million.
The Chinese instant noodle industry’s revenue is estimated to have declined by 2 to 3 percent last year, the official said.
Anna Bhobho, a 31-year-old housewife from rural Zimbabwe, was once a silent observer in her home, excluded from financial and family decisionmaking in the deeply patriarchal society. Today, she is a driver of change in her village, thanks to an electric tricycle she owns. In many parts of rural sub-Saharan Africa, women have long been excluded from mainstream economic activities such as operating public transportation. However, three-wheelers powered by green energy are reversing that trend, offering financial opportunities and a newfound sense of importance. “My husband now looks up to me to take care of a large chunk of expenses,
SECTOR LEADER: TSMC can increase capacity by as much as 20 percent or more in the advanced node part of the foundry market by 2030, an analyst said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to lead its peers in the advanced 2-nanometer process technology, despite competition from Samsung Electronics Co and Intel Corp, TrendForce Corp analyst Joanne Chiao (喬安) said. TSMC’s sophisticated products and its large production scale are expected to allow the company to continue dominating the global 2-nanometer process market this year, Chiao said. The world’s largest contract chipmaker is scheduled to begin mass production of chips made on the 2-nanometer process in its Hsinchu fab in the second half of this year. It would also hold a ceremony on Monday next week to
TECH CLUSTER: The US company’s new office is in the Shalun Smart Green Energy Science City, a new AI industry base and cybersecurity hub in southern Taiwan US chip designer Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) yesterday launched an office in Tainan’s Gueiren District (歸仁), marking a significant milestone in the development of southern Taiwan’s artificial intelligence (AI) industry, the Tainan City Government said in a statement. AMD Taiwan general manager Vincent Chern (陳民皓) presided over the opening ceremony for the company’s new office at the Shalun Smart Green Energy Science City (沙崙智慧綠能科學城), a new AI industry base and cybersecurity hub in southern Taiwan. Facilities in the new office include an information processing center, and a research and development (R&D) center, the Tainan Economic Development Bureau said. The Ministry
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities