FOOD AND BEVERAGE
UPE earnings top forecasts
Uni-President Enterprises Corp (UPE, 統一企業), the nation’s largest food-and-beverage conglomerate, yesterday reported stronger-than-expected earnings for the first quarter on contributions from its subsidiaries. Consolidated net profit was NT$5.41 billion (US$193.5 million) last quarter, up 20.97 percent from a year earlier, or earnings per share of NT$0.95 — the highest for the period in the company’s history. Consolidated revenue rose 6.62 percent year-on-year to NT$115.46 billion in the first quarter, while gross margin fell 0.38 percentage points to 33.9 percent. Tainan-based UPE’s major subsidiaries include Taiwan’s President Chain Store Corp (統一超商), Ton Yi Industrial Corp (統一實業), ScinoPharm Taiwan Ltd (台灣神隆) and President Securities Corp (統一證券), as well as its Chinese unit, Uni-President China Holdings Ltd (統一中國控股).
COMPUTERS
Compal’s Q1 profit soars
Contract laptop computer maker Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) yesterday reported net profit of NT$2.62 billion for the first quarter, up 333 percent from a year earlier, but down 43 percent from the previous quarter, or earnings per share of NT$0.6. The firm attributed the annual increase in net profit to the effect of a larger economy of scale and the efficiency of automated production, which caused its operating profit to increase 261 percent year-on-year to NT$3.28 billion. With consolidated revenue rising 48 percent to NT$269.99 billion last quarter, Compal said its operating margin reached 1.21 percent. The firm last week reported that laptop shipments last month fell 20 percent month-on-month to 4.4 million units, but increased 2.33 percent from a year earlier. Shipments this quarter are likely to rise by a double-digit percentage from last quarter, the firm said.
INSURANCE
FSC fines Fubon Life NT$3m
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) on Tuesday fined Fubon Life Insurance Co (富邦人壽) NT$3 million for breaches of its internal controls, after it secretly payed external insurance brokers and sales agents to promote its products. An FSC inspection found that Fubon Life paid the sales agents NT$28 million between 2014 and 2019, Insurance Bureau Deputy Director-General Chang Yu-hui (張玉輝) said. The firm said the payments were promotional fees, but that contravened its internal controls, which only allow it to pay the fees to its sales and internal marketing staff, Chang said. The firm did not establish a mechanism to track and control promotional expenses, he said.
E-COMMERCE
Beijing Yuanxin mulls IPO
Beijing Yuanxin Technology Co (北京圓心科技), which runs pharmaceutical e-commerce platform Miaoshou Doctor, is considering a Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO) that could raise US$500 million, people familiar with the matter said. The firm, which counts Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊) and Qiming Venture Partners (啟明創投) among its backers, is working with CLSA Ltd and Goldman Sachs Group Inc on the potential sale, they said. Separately, LinkDoc Technology Ltd (零氪科技), a Beijing-based medical data firm backed by Alibaba Health Information Technology Ltd (阿里健康), is planning an IPO for as soon as this year that could raise about US$500 million, people with knowledge of the matter said. The Chinese firm is working with Bank of America Corp, China International Capital Corp (中國國際金融) and Morgan Stanley on the sale, they said, adding that LinkDoc is still considering potential venues.
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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