Corporate bond issuance slowed down last quarter, with the combined issuance amount falling 44 percent year-on-year to NT$82.84 billion (US$2.91 billion), Taipei Exchange data showed.
That included NT$71.1 billion in regular bonds, down 49 percent from NT$138.28 billion a year earlier, and NT$11.74 billion in convertible bonds, up from NT$9.2 billion, the data showed.
The overall decline was due to a high comparison base last year, when many local companies rushed to issue bonds in the second half of March after the central bank cut interest rates, the exchange said.
Photo: Chen Rou-chen, Taipei Times
However, bond issuance last quarter was higher than in the first quarters of 2015 to 2019, due to the low interest rate environment, the exchange said.
Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank’s (台北富邦銀行) five-year NT$1 billion bonds issued in January had the lowest coupon rate of 0.4 percent in the first quarter, which was slightly higher than last year’s lowest coupon rate of 0.36 percent for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) NT$1.9 billion bonds, the data showed.
TSMC was the biggest bond issuer in the first quarter, with issuance totaling NT$21.1 billion, followed by Yuanta Commercial Bank (元大銀行) and its parent company Yuanta Financial Holding Co (元大金控), which each issued NT$5 billion in bonds, the data showed.
No green bond was issued in the first quarter, compared with four bond issuances totaling NT$7 billion a year earlier.
The Financial Supervisory Commission on Thursday said that four companies had applied to issue green bonds, adding that the first of the bonds might be issued later this month.
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
‘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
When an apartment comes up for rent in Germany’s big cities, hundreds of prospective tenants often queue down the street to view it, but the acute shortage of affordable housing is getting scant attention ahead of today’s snap general election. “Housing is one of the main problems for people, but nobody talks about it, nobody takes it seriously,” said Andreas Ibel, president of Build Europe, an association representing housing developers. Migration and the sluggish economy top the list of voters’ concerns, but analysts say housing policy fails to break through as returns on investment take time to register, making the
RSS