PHARMACEUTICALS
Adimmune plans expansion
Vaccine maker Adimmune Corp (國光生技) and its subsidiary Enimmune Corp (安特羅生技) on Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding with Singapore-listed Innovalues Tech for a joint venture in Southeast Asia to explore local markets. Innovalues Tech is a subsidiary of private equity group Northstar (北極星), with capital of US$350 million. Innovalues Tech has positioned itself as a provider of biomedicine-related products and has invested in several medical centers in Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia. The joint venture is expected to be established before the end of the year, with the initial goal of introducing influenza, tetanus and enterovirus vaccines to Southeast Asian markets, Adimmune said in a statement. The new company would later expand its product line to COVID-19 vaccines, it said. An overseas joint venture would facilitate clinical trials, drug permit applications and marketing of its products locally, Adimmune said, adding that it would consider establishing more bases overseas if the venture proves successful.
FUNDS
New ETF to make debut
CTBC Taiwan ESG Leading Semiconductor exchange-traded fund (ETF) beneficiary certificates are to debut on the main board tomorrow, the Taiwan Stock Exchange said yesterday. The new ETF is issued by CTBC Investments Co (中國信託投信) and its underlying index is the ICE Factset Taiwan ESG Leading Semiconductor Index, the exchange said in a news release. The ICE index is compiled and maintained by ICE Data Indices LLC to track the performance of high-quality or dividend-paying semiconductor companies listed in Taiwan, the exchange said. The index is comprised of 30 stocks, it said. Including the new ETF, there are 120 listed ETFs, tracking domestic and international exchanges’ equity, bond, commodity and other investment tools to meet investors’ diverse appetites and asset allocation purposes, the exchange said.
EQUITIES
TWSE to hold conferences
The Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) plans to hold online investors’ conferences for three foreign listed companies to give investors more information about their business performance in the first quarter of this year. HY Electronic (Cayman) Ltd (虹揚科技) and Yonggu Group Inc (永固集團) are to present their financial results and business development strategies on Tuesday next week, while Kingcan Holdings Ltd (福貞控股) is to hold a virtual conference on June 7, the exchange said in a statement. Apart from giving investors a better understanding of these companies’ operations, it is also hoped that the relationship between investors and the three firms would be enhanced, the exchange said.
CHIPMAKERS
SigmaStar planning IPO
Chipmaker SigmaStar (星宸科技) is seeking to raise at least 5 billion yuan (US$782.4 million) in an initial public offering in Shanghai, people familiar with the matter said. The start-up is working with advisers toward a share sale on the NASDAQ-style STAR board as soon as this year, the people said. The company is targeting a valuation of 30 billion yuan to 50 billion yuan, one of the people said. Founded in 2017, SigmaStar designs chips for security systems, sports cameras, self-driving vehicles and smart home devices, among other products, according to the company’s Web site. Its backers include China’s Kunqiao Capital (昆橋資本) and SummitView Capital (武岳峰資本), CB Insights has said.
HANDOVER POLICY: Approving the probe means that the new US administration of Donald Trump is likely to have the option to impose trade restrictions on China US President Joe Biden’s administration is set to initiate a trade investigation into Chinese semiconductors in the coming days as part of a push to reduce reliance on a technology that US officials believe poses national security risks. The probe could result in tariffs or other measures to restrict imports on older-model semiconductors and the products containing them, including medical devices, vehicles, smartphones and weaponry, people familiar with the matter said. The investigation examining so-called foundational chips could take months to conclude, meaning that any reaction to the findings would be left to the discretion of US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming team. Biden
Intel Corp chief financial officer Dave Zinsner said that a formal separation of the company’s factory and product development divisions is an open question that would be decided by the chipmaker’s next leader. Zinsner, who is serving as interim co-CEO following this month’s ouster of Pat Gelsinger, made the remarks on Thursday at the Barclays technology conference in San Francisco alongside co-CEO Michelle Johnston Holthaus. Intel’s struggles to keep pace with rivals — along with its deteriorating financial condition — have spurred speculation that the next CEO would make dramatic changes. That has included talk of a split of the company’s manufacturing
HOUSING: The uptick to 2.24 percent came despite the central bank leaving its policy unchanged for two quarters and raising lenders’ required reserve ratios Mortgage interest rates last quarter spiked to a 15-year high of 2.23 percent despite a decline in loan applications, as local lenders slowed real-estate lending to support the central bank’s credit controls, Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) said yesterday. “The data suggests that buying a home is growing increasingly difficult,” the brokers said, citing data from the Joint Credit Information Center (聯徵中心). The uptick in mortgage burdens came even though the central bank left its policy rates unchanged in the past two quarters and hiked the lenders’ required reserve ratios to drain money from the market, head researcher Charlene Chang (張旭嵐) said. Further, the
In a patch of South America rich in lithium, used to make batteries for electric cars and other tech, Bolivia is lagging its neighbors in the race to mine the key metal. An area called the “lithium triangle” which spills over the borders of Bolivia, Chile and Argentina is home to 60 percent of the world’s lithium reserves, according to the US Geological Survey. Bolivia claims to have Earth’s largest deposit of the metal, used to make rechargeable batteries for smartphones, laptops and other devices besides e-vehicles. However, Bolivia has undertaken only four pilot projects and is running just one
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