FINANCE
Shinhan bonds listed locally
South Korean credit card company Shinhan Card Co Ltd’s international bonds were yesterday listed on the Taipei Exchange, making it the first foreign financial institution to issue international bonds in Taiwan. The US$300 million of bonds, with maturities of five years and a coupon rate of 1.375 percent, have a dual listing in Taipei and Singapore, and the lead underwriter of the bond is HSBC Bank Taiwan Ltd (匯豐台灣商銀), the exchange said. The funds raised are to be used exclusively for social projects focusing on financing for the development of public hospitals and medical facilities, loans to low-income populations with low credit ratings, subsidizing the borrowing of loans for infrastructure and transportation projects, and supporting interest payments, it said.
BROKERAGES
Combined profit declines
Securities firms in Taiwan last month reported combined net income of NT$4.76 billion (US$169.96 million), down 64.14 percent from April, the Taiwan Stock Exchange said in a statement on Tuesday. The exchange attributed last month’s drop to a 163.72 percent decline in dealer trading profit and a 79.64 percent fall in underwriting profit, compared with April, although securities firms saw an increase of 31 percent in brokerage fee income. Securities firms’ accumulated net income in the first five months of the year totaled NT$44.89 billion, up 480.34 percent from the same period last year, the exchange said. The significant rise in brokerage fee income, dealer trading profit and underwriting profit came as the TAIEX reversed its downward momentum, it added.
AIRLINES
Air NZ to restart local flights
Air New Zealand is to resume direct passenger flights between Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and Auckland Airport in August after a 16-month hiatus, the airline said in a news release yesterday. Starting on Aug. 4, the airline plans to operate one round-trip flight per month between Taipei and Auckland, it said, adding that passengers can book flights for between August and October. For the service, the airline said that it would use its Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, which has air purifiers with high efficiency particulate air filters installed. The company suspended all flights between Taiwan and New Zealand on March 30 last year after the COVID-19 pandemic spread worldwide, but it resumed cargo services on June 13, operating two flights per week to Taiwan.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Vaxxinity, Paraguay ink deal
Vaxxinity, a US affiliate of local vaccine maker United Biomedical Inc Asia (聯亞生技), has signed a contract with Paraguay to provide 1 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine once it gets emergency use authorization from Taiwan’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the company said on Monday. The order was signed on June 16 in Asuncion by Paraguayan Minister of Public Health and Social Welfare Julio Borba and Vaxxinity chief strategy officer Jon Harrison. The UB-612 vaccine is expected to be delivered later this summer, pending issuance of emergency use authorization by the FDA and subsequent registration by the Paraguayan National Health Surveillance Authority, it said. The move would make Paraguay one of the first countries in the world to receive the UB-612 vaccine once it receives emergency use authorization, it added.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six