Kura Sushi Asia Co (亞洲藏壽司), a Taiwanese subsidiary of Japanese sushi chain Kura Sushi Inc, yesterday saw its stock dive by the daily limit after posting lackluster fourth-quarter results.
Shares of Kura Sushi Asia closed down 9.83 percent to NT$183.50, after the company on Thursday reported modest earnings of NT$1.16 per share for the October-to-December period on revenue of NT$1.02 billion (US$33.07 million), its second-highest on record, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
Earnings were affected by foreign-exchange losses, as the Japanese yen’s rebound prompted investors to cut their holdings in the sushi chain, analysts said.
Photo: Amy Yang, Taipei Times
Still, net income for the full year gained nearly 10 percent to a record NT$240.09 million, or earnings of NT$5.21 per share, company data showed, as the restaurant chain benefited from consumption after the government eased COVID-19 restrictions and people grew less afraid of contracting the virus.
The phenomenon explained why revenue for last year surged 52.26 percent to NT$3.85 billion, it said.
Kura Sushi Asia operates 50 restaurants across Taiwan, mostly in conveniently located shopping malls and department stores that feature Japanese sushi, pasta, desserts, drinks and other products. The company also markets its products worldwide.
Revenue last month jumped 18.74 percent year-on-year to NT$320 million, helped by the long 228 Memorial Day holiday, the company said.
Cumulative sales for the first two months rose nearly 40 percent to NT$838 million, it added.
Kura Sushi Asia said it plans to open a new outlet in Kaohsiung after meeting its goal of operating 50 stores in Taiwan.
The company’s board yesterday approved a plan to invest 30 million yuan (US$4.3 million) in China later this year.
There is no leading conveyor belt sushi bar brand in the Chinese market, which is favorable to Kura Sushi’s plan to expand across the Strait, the company said.
The company will slow down its pace of expansion in Taiwan, which is to serve as the springboard for its ventures into China and Southeast Asia, it said.
Shanghai will be the next focus of revenue growth, aided by Kura Sushi being one of Japan’s top three sushi operators, with more than 400 outlets in the North Asian country, it said.
In other news, Kaohsiung-based Hi-Lai Foods Co (漢來美食) said it is to step up efforts to stimulate sales after revenue last month weakened 37.33 percent from January to NT$365 million, as the holiday effect faded.
The restaurant chain said it is to offer assorted discounts and promotion campaigns to woo customers.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) would not produce its most advanced technologies in the US next year, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. Kuo made the comment during an appearance at the legislature, hours after the chipmaker announced that it would invest an additional US$100 billion to expand its manufacturing operations in the US. Asked by Taiwan People’s Party Legislator-at-large Chang Chi-kai (張啟楷) if TSMC would allow its most advanced technologies, the yet-to-be-released 2-nanometer and 1.6-nanometer processes, to go to the US in the near term, Kuo denied it. TSMC recently opened its first US factory, which produces 4-nanometer
PROTECTION: The investigation, which takes aim at exporters such as Canada, Germany and Brazil, came days after Trump unveiled tariff hikes on steel and aluminum products US President Donald Trump on Saturday ordered a probe into potential tariffs on lumber imports — a move threatening to stoke trade tensions — while also pushing for a domestic supply boost. Trump signed an executive order instructing US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick to begin an investigation “to determine the effects on the national security of imports of timber, lumber and their derivative products.” The study might result in new tariffs being imposed, which would pile on top of existing levies. The investigation takes aim at exporters like Canada, Germany and Brazil, with White House officials earlier accusing these economies of
Teleperformance SE, the largest call-center operator in the world, is rolling out an artificial intelligence (AI) system that softens English-speaking Indian workers’ accents in real time in a move the company claims would make them more understandable. The technology, called accent translation, coupled with background noise cancelation, is being deployed in call centers in India, where workers provide customer support to some of Teleperformance’s international clients. The company provides outsourced customer support and content moderation to global companies including Apple Inc, ByteDance Ltd’s (字節跳動) TikTok and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. “When you have an Indian agent on the line, sometimes it’s hard
PROBE CONTINUES: Those accused falsely represented that the chips would not be transferred to a person other than the authorized end users, court papers said Singapore charged three men with fraud in a case local media have linked to the movement of Nvidia’s advanced chips from the city-state to Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) firm DeepSeek (深度求索). The US is investigating if DeepSeek, the Chinese company whose AI model’s performance rocked the tech world in January, has been using US chips that are not allowed to be shipped to China, Reuters reported earlier. The Singapore case is part of a broader police investigation of 22 individuals and companies suspected of false representation, amid concerns that organized AI chip smuggling to China has been tracked out of nations such
RSS