FOOD AND BEVERAGE
UPE’s net income drops
Uni-President Enterprises Corp (UPE, 統一企業), the nation’s largest food and beverage conglomerate, yesterday reported an annual decline in net income for last year, affected by lower contributions from its subsidiaries amid rising prices of raw materials and the COVID-19 pandemic. Its consolidated net profit was NT$19.88 billion (US$699.14 million) last year, down 7.7 percent from a year earlier, or earnings per share of NT$3.5, down from NT$3.79 in 2020. Consolidated revenue rose 5.9 percent year-on-year to NT$473.5 billion. Of Tainan-based UPE’s Taiwan subsidiaries, President Chain Store Corp’s (統一超商) net profit fell 13.4 percent, while Ton Yi Industrial Corp’s (統一實業) surged 101 percent from a year earlier, company data showed. Its Chinese unit, Uni-President China Holdings Ltd’s (統一中國控股) net profit dropped 7.7 percent.
RENEWABLE ENERGY
Motive sets up Taipei hub
UK-based Motive Offshore Group, which specializes in the design, manufacture, rental and inspection of marine and lifting equipment, yesterday said that it has set up a renewables hub in Taipei with an operational base near the Port of Taichung. Since entering the local market in 2018, the group has played an instrumental role in the development and commissioning of offshore wind projects, as well as deploying multi-sector solutions to support the local supply chain, it said in a statement. The new facility has already resulted in the creation of 10 jobs in Taipei, it said. To enhance local trade and investment in the region, Motive has joined forces with specialist organizations V-TES Renewables and PanGeo Subsea — which are based in Aberdeen, Scotland —to establish the Subsea Cable Alliance. The alliance would consolidate a complex local trade landscape through a single partner, resulting in reduced time and costs for logistics and contractual resources while enhancing vessel uptime, Motive said.
COMPUTERS
Quanta, Compal report sales
Contract notebook computer makers Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) yesterday reported that their sales for last month were a record for February, although they were lower than the previous month, as there were fewer working days because of the Lunar New Year holiday. Revenue at Quanta decreased 10 percent month-on-month, but increased 13.2 percent year-on-year to NT$90.69 billion, the company said in a statement. It shipped 4.8 million notebook computers last month, down 1.2 million units from January. Quanta forecast that its first-quarter notebook shipments would perform better than previously, dropping less than 20 percent from a quarter earlier. Compal said in a separate statement that its sales declined 0.3 percent monthly, but rose 16.7 percent annually to NT$82.44 billion. It shipped 3.6 million laptops last month, flat from a month earlier, the company said.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Vanguard’s sales jump
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) yesterday reported consolidated sales of NT$4.25 billion for last month, up 50.72 percent from NT$2.82 billion a year earlier, it said in a news release. “Due to an increase of shipments and a better product mix, net sales for February increased about 1.56 percent compared with NT$4,179 million the previous month,” Vanguard chief financial officer Amanda Huang (黃惠蘭) said in the release. Cumulative sales from January to last month increased 50.53 percent from NT$5.596 billion in the same period last year, the firm said.
TRADE WAR: Tariffs should also apply to any goods that pass through the new Beijing-funded port in Chancay, Peru, an adviser to US president-elect Donald Trump said A veteran adviser to US president-elect Donald Trump is proposing that the 60 percent tariffs that Trump vowed to impose on Chinese goods also apply to goods from any country that pass through a new port that Beijing has built in Peru. The duties should apply to goods from China or countries in South America that pass through the new deep-water port Chancay, a town 60km north of Lima, said Mauricio Claver-Carone, an adviser to the Trump transition team who served as senior director for the western hemisphere on the White House National Security Council in his first administration. “Any product going
TECH SECURITY: The deal assures that ‘some of the most sought-after technology on the planet’ returns to the US, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said The administration of US President Joe Biden finalized its CHIPS Act incentive awards for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), marking a major milestone for a program meant to bring semiconductor production back to US soil. TSMC would get US$6.6 billion in grants as part of the contract, the US Department of Commerce said in a statement yesterday. Though the amount was disclosed earlier this year as part of a preliminary agreement, the deal is now legally binding — making it the first major CHIPS Act award to reach this stage. The chipmaker, which is also taking up to US$5 billion
High above the sparkling surface of the Athens coastline, the cranes for building the 50-floor luxury tower centerpiece of Greece’s future “smart city” look out over the Saronic Gulf. At their feet, construction machinery stirs up dust. Its backers say the 8 billion euro (US$8.43 billion) project financed by private funds is a symbol of Greece’s renaissance after the years of financial stagnation that saw investors flee the country. However, critics see it more as a future “ghetto for the rich.” It is hard to imagine that 10km from the Acropolis, a new city “three times the size of Monaco”
STRUGGLING BUSINESS: South Korea’s biggest company and semiconductor manufacturer’s buyback fuels concerns that it could be missing out on the AI boom Samsung Electronics Co plans to buy back about 10 trillion won (US$7.2 billion) of its own stock over the next year, putting in motion one of the larger shareholder return programs in its history. South Korea’s biggest company would repurchase the stock in stages over the coming 12 months, it said in a regulatory filing on Friday. As a first step, it would buy back about 3 trillion won of paper starting today up until February next year, all of which it would cancel. The board would deliberate on how best to effect the remaining 7 trillion won of buybacks. The move
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