ENERGY
Solar merger approved
The Fair Trade Commission yesterday approved Neo Solar Energy Corp’s (新日光) merger with local solar cell makers Gintech Energy Corp (昱晶) and Solartech Energy Corp (昇陽光電), saying the deal would not harm market competition. The three-in-one merger, which earlier received approval from competition watchdogs in China and Germany, would help Neo Solar slightly increase its market share without hindering already-intensive competition, the commission said. There is also no major concern about potential price fixing, as solar prices are largely regulated worldwide, it said. About 90 percent of solar cells made by local firms are exported abroad, it added.
ENTERTAINMENT
OMG probed over patents
Online game maker MacroWell OMG Digital Entertainment Co (OMG, 歐買尬) yesterday confirmed that investigators searched the company’s offices earlier in the day over patent infringement allegations. The company said it would fully cooperate and that it would not affect its business.
RESTAURANTS
Hi-Lai approves dividend
Hi-Lai Foods Co Ltd (漢來美食) yesterday said its board has approved a proposal to distribute a cash dividend of NT$6.6 per share and a stock dividend of 3 percent this year, after reporting earnings per share of NT$7.47 for last year, representing a payout ratio of 92.37 percent. First-quarter revenue rose 7.56 percent from a year earlier to NT$979 million (US$33.3 million), a record high.
ELECTRONICS
Elan to slash capitalization
Elan Microelectronics Corp (義隆電子), which supplies touchpad controller and fingerprint sensors, on Tuesday announced that its board has agreed to cut the company’s capitalization by 30 percent to adjust its capital structure and return NT$3 in cash per share to shareholders. With a proposed cash dividend of NT$2.58 per common share, the company plans to distribute a total of NT$5.58 per share, to be approved at an annual shareholders’ meeting on June 11. The capital reduction plan would see the company’s capitalization drop to NT$3.04 billion from NT$4.34 billion.
ELECTRONICS
Machvision sees momentum
Machvision Inc (牧德), a supplier of printed circuit board (PCB) inspection equipment, on Tuesday said it is optimistic about its performance this year, as growth momentum would gain support from new products related to semiconductor applications. Chairman Collin Wang (汪光夏) told a Taipei Exchange-organized conference that the firm’s sales mix by product in the first quarter included flexible PCB inspection equipment (39 percent), automated optical inspection equipment for rigid PCBs (26 percent) and integrated circuit inspection equipment (17 percent). Machvision’s first-quarter sales grew 144.6 percent year-on-year and 8.2 percent quarter-on-quarter to NT$565 million.
BANKING
Yuan deposits slump 0.06%
Yuan deposits held by domestic banks, including negotiable certificates of deposit, edged down 0.06 percent to 321.69 billion yuan (US$51.2 billion) at the end of last month, the central bank said on Tuesday. Yuan deposits held by banks’ domestic units totaled 291.63 billion yuan, a monthly decrease of 0.16 percent, the central bank said, adding that holdings by banks’ offshore units increased 0.92 percent to 30.06 billion yuan.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said that its investment plan in Arizona is going according to schedule, following a local media report claiming that the company is planning to break ground on its third wafer fab in the US in June. In a statement, TSMC said it does not comment on market speculation, but that its investments in Arizona are proceeding well. TSMC is investing more than US$65 billion in Arizona to build three advanced wafer fabs. The first one has started production using the 4-nanometer (nm) process, while the second one would start mass production using the
A TAIWAN DEAL: TSMC is in early talks to fully operate Intel’s US semiconductor factories in a deal first raised by Trump officials, but Intel’s interest is uncertain Broadcom Inc has had informal talks with its advisers about making a bid for Intel Corp’s chip-design and marketing business, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Nothing has been submitted to Intel and Broadcom could decide not to pursue a deal, according to the Journal. Bloomberg News earlier reported that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is in early talks for a controlling stake in Intel’s factories at the request of officials at US President Donald Trump’s administration, as the president looks to boost US manufacturing and maintain the country’s leadership in critical technologies. Trump officials raised the
‘SILVER LINING’: Although the news caused TSMC to fall on the local market, an analyst said that as tariffs are not set to go into effect until April, there is still time for negotiations US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that he would likely impose tariffs on semiconductor, automobile and pharmaceutical imports of about 25 percent, with an announcement coming as soon as April 2 in a move that would represent a dramatic widening of the US leader’s trade war. “I probably will tell you that on April 2, but it’ll be in the neighborhood of 25 percent,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago club when asked about his plan for auto tariffs. Asked about similar levies on pharmaceutical drugs and semiconductors, the president said that “it’ll be 25 percent and higher, and it’ll
CHIP BOOM: Revenue for the semiconductor industry is set to reach US$1 trillion by 2032, opening up opportunities for the chip pacakging and testing company, it said ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控), the world’s largest provider of outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) services, yesterday launched a new advanced manufacturing facility in Penang, Malaysia, aiming to meet growing demand for emerging technologies such as generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The US$300 million facility is a critical step in expanding ASE’s global footprint, offering an alternative for customers from the US, Europe, Japan, South Korea and China to assemble and test chips outside of Taiwan amid efforts to diversify supply chains. The plant, the company’s fifth in Malaysia, is part of a strategic expansion plan that would more than triple
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