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.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
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
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
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