| Prime News | | ![]() | ![]() | SAC Private Capital Reaches Takeover Agreement With Cosmos Bank
Taipei, Sept. 11, 2007 (CENS)--Both private equity fund SAC Private Capital Group and GE Money yesterday (Sept. 10) reached an agreement with Cosmos Bank that they would jointly invest NT$29.7 billion in subscribing to the bank's private share placement, obtaining over 80% stake in the bank.
Under the agreement, SAC Private Capital will invest US$650 million (NT$21.45 billion) in subscribing to convertible preferred stocks and convertible preferred bonds issued by Cosmos Bank, while GE Money will chip in US$250 million (NT$8.25 billion) in subscribing to the bank's common stocks and convertible corporate bonds, both at NT$2 per share.
Meanwhile, Cosmos Bank also inked a pact yesterday with China Development Industrial Bank, Shin Kong Bank, and nine other creditor institutions for converting the latter's debt claims totaling US$400 million (NT$13.25 billion) in value into share holdings. They will incur 58% of loss, as a result.
The agreements were announced at a press conference attended by Frank Baker, managing director of SAC PCG, Stefano Bermini, GE Money's president for the Asia-Pacific region, Hu Chien-chu, Cosmos chairman and president, and Simon Williams, executive partner of SAC PCG and former chief risk officer of Citi Group's global consumer-banking department, who will become chairman of Cosmos Bank.
Williams pointed out that following the capital increment, Cosmos Bank's capital adequacy ratio will hit 12-13% at least, making it the bank with the healthiest finance among Taiwanese small and medium banks.
All incumbent staffers of the bank, including some department heads dispatched by GE Money, will remain in office, while Hu Chien-hu will become full-time president, according to Williams. Williams expressed confidence in having the bank break even in 12 to 18 months.
Williams pointed out that in the future Cosmos will transform into a niche-type consumer-banking service provider, with business scope covering, in addition to the original twin-card business, auto loans, debt collection, and weal management focusing on the emerging affluent market featuring clients with disposable funds of NT$1-5 million.
Despite the concentrated share ownership, Cosmos Bank will not be delisted, in order to facilitate public funding-raising in the future.
Baker reported that the four-year technology-transfer contract between Cosmos Bank and GE Money will remain effective, for which the bank will continue to pay the latter NT$20 million annually. GE Money bought into Cosmos Bank in the form of technology transfer last year, introducing talents, management mode, and analytical tools to help the bank handle its mountainous bad debts.
Following inking of the agreement, the board of directors of Cosmos Bank resolved yesterday to convene a provisional shareholders' meeting on October 29 for approving the private-share placement proposal. The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) pointed out that following the capital increment, the bank will carry out 80% capital reduction, leading to dilution of existing share holdings to only 7% of original amount. Market insiders also noted that some small shareholders may resent the extremely low share price for the deal.
((PL)) (GE) | |
| | ![]() | | | Taiwan to Join WTO DSB for U.S. Copyright-Infringement Charge Against China
Taipei, Sept. 11, 2007 (CENS)--In the face of rampant copyright infringement in China, the U.S government filed an application with the World Trade Organization (WTO) for setting up a panel to handle the chronic issue under its Dispute-Settlement Body (DSB). The Taiwanese government has decided to join, as a third party, the panel.
Teng Chen-chung, chief representative of the Office of Trade Negotiations, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), noted that participation in the DSB will not only enable Taiwan to understand the contents of the charge of the plaintiff and the defense of the defendant but will also give it the right to express its opinions on aspects related to its interests, thereby inducing the litigation to proceed in the direction conforming to its interests and influencing revision of related regulations by the WTO in the future.
This will be the second time for Taiwan to participate in charges by WTO members against China, following the case concerning import measures against Chinese auto parts.
The U.S. resorted to the DSB following failure to obtain satisfactory result in its talk with China on copyright infringement issue in April. Major complaint of the U.S. charge is condition of quantity for penalizing copyright or trademark infringement in China, as a result of which only infringement at massive scale is punishable.
((PL)) (GE) | |
| | ![]() | | | Acer to Acquire a Firm in Mainland China Within a Year
Taipei, Sept. 11, 2007 (CENS)--Acer Inc., the world's third-largest brand of personal computers, is considering boosting market share in mainland China by way of merger and acquisition.
Acer chairman and CEO J.T. Wang said his company would adopt appropriate acquisition means to boost market share in mainland China in nine months or one year. At the end of August, Acer had just acquired the U.S.-based PC manufacturer—Gateway.
Based on its global development strategy, Acer is now enhancing its leader position in the U.S. and Europe. After strengthening its position in the U.S. and Europe, Acer will spend more time and effort to step up its presence in mainland China.
Despite its fast growth in Europe and the U.S., Acer saw its growth in the mainland lag behind average market growth in the second quarter of this year. The company ranked eighth in the mainland market with shipments growing at less than 40% in the second quarter.
After acquiring Gateway, Wang said, his company has to concentrate more on the Asian market to offset the heightened pressure from rival Lenovo, mainland's leading brand in the PC sector.
In terms of global market share, Acer has outpaced Lenovo as the world's third-largest PC manufacturer with a single-percentage margin.
Faced with the criticism that Acer has offered too much money in acquiring Gateway, Wang said Acer won't keep on growing without acquiring the U.S. PC brand. He said Acer has low profit margin in the U.S. marketplace as its brand recognition is very low in that market. With the acquisition of Gateway, Acer predicted it would be able to raise net profit margin to 2% up to 3% in the U.S. market within two years.
((BS)) (E) | |
| | ![]() | | | Taiwan Government to Launch Third Round of Tax Reform
Taipei, Sept. 11, 2007 (CENS)--Taiwan government is considering kicking off third round of tax reform to raise the international competitiveness of domestic enterprises, said Ho Mei-yueh, chairwoman of the Cabinet-level Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) at a breakfast meeting hosted by the Chinese National Association of Industry and Commerce (CNAIC).
Ho noted the third round of tax reform calls for termination of all the preferential taxes stipulated in the Statute for the Promotion of Industrial Upgrading. In addition, the business income tax will be lowered to possibly 15% from present 25%, lower than that in Hong Kong at 16.5%. She said the third round of tax reform will be fully fleshed out by the end of this year.
According to statistics compiled by the Cabinet-level Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), the 1,270 firms listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange and Gre Tai Securities Market scored NT$793.2 billion (US$24.03 billion at US$1:NT$33) in pretax earnings in the first half of this year. If the business income tax is reduced to 16.5%, these listed firms will be able to save NT$67.4 billion (US$2.04 billion) in the first half of this year. If the tax is cut to 15%, they will be able to save NT$80 billion (US$2.42 billion) in business income tax in the same period of time.
C.L. Tu, president of Grand Securities Investment and Consulting Co., said the reduction in business income tax will mainly benefit traditional industries as construction, papermaking and textile.
At present, the business income tax is 16.5% and 12.5% for Hong Kong and Finland, respectively. In addition, Singapore will step by step cut its tax rate to 18%.
Despite the nominal 25% business income tax rate in Taiwan, many high-tech firms are subject to a less than 10% in actual tax rate because they can enjoy a lot of tax incentives.
Ho said with the implementation of the third round of tax reform, the nominal tax rate will become the same as the real tax rate.
((BS)) (GE) | |
| | ![]() | | | ASE Mulls Listing Mainland Operations on A-Share Board
Taipei, Sept. 11, 2007 (CENS)--Chip assembler Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE) Inc. plans to list its mainland Chinese operations, including a real-estate business, on the mainland's A-Share market in light of the thriving mainland Chinese stock market.
The world's No.1 chip assembler has contracted some of the mainland's local brokerage houses to assist its mainland businesses in making initial public offerings (IPOs) on the market. The company plans to allow its mainland Chinese affiliates to go public, starting in the second half of 2008.
ASE executives recently stressed that raising capital abroad has been the company's consistent policy and their company is still evaluating the feasibility of listing their mainland affiliates on China or Hong Kong stock markets. But they said the company would follow Taiwan government's policies on investments in the mainland.
Industry watchers pointed out that listing affiliates on the mainland stock market suggests the company's capital raising approaches have become more flexible after the failure of an offer of private-equity Carlyle Group to acquire ASE.
As part of its nimble capital strategy ASE recently acquired the remaining 49% ownership of subsidiary ASE Test Ltd., in which it originally held a 51% stake. Institutional investors highly praised the acquisition, saying the move will help boost ASE's earnings and share price. They expected listing mainland operations on the mainland stock markets would further bolster the company's share price and bargaining chips in talks with private equity firms.
Nantong Fujitsu Microelectronics Co., Ltd., the mainland's first chip assembler, went public on Shenzhen A-Share market, and the price/earning ratio of its share has recently enlarged to nearly 60 folds although declining from a peak of 80 folds.
Currently in the mainland, ASE has five semiconductor subsidiaries and one real-estate development company. Two of its mainland semiconductor subsidiaries have projected to boost annual revenues to over US$200 million, respectively, by the end of this year.
((KL)) (E) | |
| | ![]() | | | Major Taiwanese CD-R Makers to Litigate Philips' Licensing System
Taipei, Sept. 11, 2007 (CENS)--Four optical disc manufacturers in Taiwan have decided to take legal actions against Royal Philips Electronics to seek compensation from the Netherlands-based company's recordable/write-once compact disc (CD-R) licensing system, according to industry sources.
The four companies, including Ritek Corp., CMC Magnetics Corp., Prodisc Technology Inc., and Daxon Technology Inc., plan to ask Philips to return the royalties they paid in the past years to compensate for their losses resulting from Philips' licensing system.
According to some local optical-disc makers, they are forced to litigate to seek a fair market, because their major rivals such as MBI of India and some optical-disc makers in mainland China do not have to pay such licensing fees.
Industry insiders said that all the four Taiwan disc makers signed an agreement with Philips to be CD-R licensed in 2006 and the agreement expired in June this year. Disputes over licensing fee payable have delayed the renewal of the licensing agreement through the end of August, with nothing having been finalized. So, the said four local companies have been excluded from Philips' CD-R licensing list.
Philips Taiwan said that it has not received any legal notice from local disc makers so it could not comment. The local subsidiary claimed that it hopes to continue negotiating with the disc makers to reach consensus.
Taiwan information Storage Association (TISA) announced that Philips requires Taiwanese optical-disc makers to pay sizable licensing fees and accept unreasonable licensing terms, totally depriving local disc makers' ability to survive in the market, treating the local companies differently relative to some foreign companies who do not pay licensing fees to Philips.
((QL)) (E) | |
| | ![]() | | | July New-car Sales Hit Second-best Monthly Record in 2007
Taipei, Sept. 11, 2007 (CENS)--A total of about 24,000 new cars were sold in July in Taiwan, up 38% from the same month of last year, despite the seventh month being traditionally a trough due to the Chinese Ghost Month.
Most local automakers expressed optimism toward the domestic automobile market in the last four months of the year, estimating that about 320,000 new cars are expected to be sold in Taiwan this year.
Statistics released by Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) showed that 24,164 new cars were sold in August, and 228,352 in the first eight months, down 12.6% from a year earlier, on the island.
Hotai Motor Co. Ltd. (Toyota and Lexus dealer) grabbed a record monthly market share of 41.4% in August by selling 10,000 units, an astonishing annual increase of 178.7%.
Thanks to the hot sales last month, Hotai's accumulated sales volume in the first eight months totaled 74,348 units, terminating the long-term negative growth (-8.6% in the first seven months) to achieve 0.5% sales growth.
Counterparts attributed Hotai's surprisingly big volume last month to the firm's prolonged holding of summer sales competitions between dealers, extended to August 10, incurring a remarkable record of about 9,000 new Toyotas and Lexus sold in the first half of last month.
China Motor Corp., the local producer of Mitsubishi and Chrysler cars and the perennial No. 2 auto retailer in Taiwan, sold 2,887 new cars last month, an 32.8% year-on-year (YoY) increase, though it was facing a product gap before demonstration of the new Lancer Fortis sedan.
Some heavy-weight locally made car models are expected to be gradually launched soon (after the Chinese Ghost Month), including the Lancer Fortis, Ford Focus TDCi diesel-engine sedan (by Ford Lio Ho), Toyota Camry 2.4L, Nissan Livina Geniss (Yulon Nissan Motor), etc. The new models are expected to generate momentum to push up sales volume in the domestic market over next few months.
In addition, some industry sources said, many car models, including both passenger cars and commercial vehicles would be prohibited by the new fourth-stage emission standard effective on the first day of 2008. Most makers have stopped production of these old models and been actively clearing out inventory by offering very preferential terms. That is also expected to help elevate new-car sales in next few months.
| |
| | ![]() | | | Carlyle, Corsair to Buy Stake in Ta Chong Bank
Taipei, Sept. 11, 2007 (CENS)—It is reported that Carlyle Partners, a noted international private equity firm, has recently decided to invite J.P. Morgan's Corsair Fund to jointly purchase stakes in Ta Chong Bank, a private Taiwanese bank.
Ta Chong announced in mid-July that the bank is planning to raise a total of NT$21.5 billion (US$651.52 million at US$1 = NT$33) from private equity funds managed by Carlyle Partners via floating general private equity shares, convertible special shares, and convertible banking debentures.
The bank hoped that the above-mentioned private equity funds could be channeled into the bank by the end of October or early in November of this year. Carlyle Partners once cooperated with Corsair Fund to jointly invest in a bank in South Korea, and the two funds have decided to cooperate again to purchase stakes together in Ta Chong.
A senior official at Ta Chong disclosed that any inbound investment should be reported to the Investment Commission under the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) for approval. Carlyle's investment is very likely to be reviewed by Investment Commission at the end of this month.
It is understood that Carlyle Partners may buy 26.8% of Ta Chong's general private equity shares and convertible special shares as well. The purchased shares are reportedly to be transferred into banking debentures a year later, after which the fund management firm will own 36.9% of the Taiwanese bank.
However, Taiwan's banking law stipulates that one shareholder is not allowed to own more than 25% of the same bank, so Carlyle Partners has decided to invite Corsair Fund to join in the venture. Corsair will put up capital of about NT$6-7 billion (US$181.82-212.12 million) into the venture to own a 12% stake in the bank, and then Carlyle will keep the remaining 24.9% of the projected 36.9% stake.
((JL)) (GE) | |
| | ![]() | | | State-owned Taiwan Financial Holding to Debut at Yearend
Taipei, Sept. 11, 2007 (CENS)--Taiwan Financial Holding Co. is expected to be officially established at the end of this year, a merger of four government-owned financial institutions, namely Bank of Taiwan, Central Trust of China, Export-Import Ban of the ROC, and Land Bank of Taiwan.
The prospective state-owned financial holding company (FHC), with a projected market share of 18%, will be the largest of Taiwan's FHCs and the 89th largest in the world. The new FHC will have a total of 307 branches around the island, becoming the second FHC to run more than 300 outlets besides Taiwan Cooperative Bank.
In recent years merger has become a favored corporate strategy for Taiwanese financial institutions to reinforce strength and expand. In May of 2006 Taiwan Cooperative merged with Farmers Bank of China, with its total outlets shooting up to 301, becoming Taiwan's first financial institution with more than 300 branches.
Taishin International Bank is reported to combine with Chang Hwa Bank at the end of this year and the number of the branches of the combined bank will then reach 271. In the third quarter of the year, Chinatrust Commercial Bank is going to purchase Enterprise Bank of Hualien (EBH) and it will see its branches expand to 142 from the current 111 to outpace that of Cathay United Bank, Bank SinoPac, and Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank, which boast corresponding number of 139, 128, and 123, respectively.
Insiders indicate that the ranking of Taiwan's financial institutions would be reshuffled in the second half of this year after more mergers among banks. They believed that the said mergers would help the combined banks to enhance its marketing channels and meanwhile increase wealth management business that calls for personal contact with clients. Currently Taiwan's financial institutions run a total of 3,292 branches with integrated assets of NT$27 trillion (US$818.18 billion).
| |
| | ![]() | | | Inventec Appliances Supplies Handsets to HP and Apple
Taipei, Sept. 11, 2007 (CENS)--Inventec Appliances Corp., a supplier of communications devices in Taiwan, is supplying handsets to world's big-name brands, namely HP and Apple, according to company sources.
This is the first time for Inventec Appliances to win orders from HP for smart phones, iPAQ 600 and 900, the latest models since this February when HP unveiled its first smart phone iPAQ 510 at 3GSM World Series, and this is also beginning for the two parties to work together on other new models for the future.
HP will still have new models to launch in the fourth quarter of this year, and orders for those are expected to be shared between Taiwan's Chi Mei Communication System Inc. and Compal Communications Inc.
In the past, HP developed personal digital assistances (PDAs) with Microsoft's operating systems, and placed orders of the products mainly with High Tech Computer Corporation (HTC). After venturing into making PDA phones, HP selected Quanta Computer Inc. and HTC as its contract suppliers of such products.
However, with HTC turning to develop own branded handsets, which have become the major competing models working with Microsoft's operating systems against HP's, HP therefore has to seek other new contract suppliers.
HP has switched its promotional strategy to focus on smartphones, and actively sought contract suppliers in Taiwan, with Chi Mei Communication, Inventec Appliances and Compal Communications being newly added to its supplier list. Accordingly, Inventec Appliances supplies HP with 3.5-generation handsets, Chi Mei Communication with several 3G models, and Compal Communications with other products based on code division multiple access (CDMA).
In fact, Inventec Appliances unveiled two 3.5-generaion PDA phones at Taipei Computex 2007, namely K869 and K871, which were originally to be sold under its own brand OKWAP, but finally turned out to be HP's smartphones, iPAQ600 and 900 respectively. The two new handsets both support 3.5G speedy transmission, with the former adopting global positioning system (GPS) and the latter Qwerty keyboards.
Meanwhile, Inventec Appliances also won orders from Apple for iPod Classic, which is similar to typical models in looks, but embedded with high-capacity hard disk drives. The products adopting 80GB hard disk drives are priced at US$249 per unit, or 160GB priced at US$349, which are to be sold during Christmas holidays.
Apple is the largest brand of MP3 players in the North American market, with a share of up to 70% there, while HP is actively contacting local telecom service carriers for cooperation in the market. Thus, fueled by huge orders in the fourth quarter of this year, Inventec Appliances is very likely to see sales revenue for the quarter to sharply grow by 40% from a quarter earlier, and to challenge net profits of NT$4.96 per share this year, and NT$5.11 for next year, according to Deutsche Securities.
((SC)) (E) | |
| | ![]() | | | Taiwan's Major NB PC Suppliers See Banner Sales in Aug.
Taipei, Sept. 11, 2007 (CENS)--With Microsoft's new operating system Vista causing a boom in the notebook PC industry, Quanta Computer Inc. and Wistron Corporation, two of Taiwan's top five suppliers in the sector, saw their single-month revenue hit new highs this August, according to company sources.
Quanta reported combined revenue of NT$75.238 billion for this August, a historical high and up 21.7% from a month earlier and 128% from a year earlier, and has scored aggregate revenue of NT$441.231 billion over past eight months this year, growing by 62.6% from a year earlier.
Besides, Quanta posted shipment of 2.9 million notebook PCs in the month, a new high over 2.8 million units posted in July, and has scored aggregate shipment of 19.3 million units over past seven months this year, including 7.4 million units for the second quarter of the year thanks to big orders from Apple for iMacs and Mac Book Pros.
Quanta projected its shipment for the third quarter to exceed 8.5 million notebook PCs, up at least 15% from a quarter earlier. However, institutional investors are optimistic to see the figure reach between 8.7 and 8.9 million units, and the company is expected to achieve an annual shipment goal of 28 million notebook PCs for entire the year.
On another front, Wistron also posted sales revenue of NT$26 billion for this August to beat a new high, up 23.8% from a month earlier and 32% from last August, and has scored aggregate revenue of NT$153.8 billion over the past eight months of the year, growing by 13.25% from a year earlier.
Although posting a growth of 13.25%, significantly less than the corresponding figures by Quanta and Compal Electronics Inc., Wistron, with orders from Acer starting the second half of the year, is expected to report a growth of 25% in sales revenue for the third quarter, and, furthermore, 20% for the fourth quarter, fueled by orders from Dell and increasing shipment of liquid crystal display (LCD) TVs at the time.
In addition, Wistron has enjoyed stable growth in shipment to HP and Acer through 2008, and may land orders from new Japanese clients next year. Goldman Sachs estimated the company's shipment of notebook PCs will amount to 17.6 million units for next year, with the strongest growth than those by other major suppliers of this kind.
According to analysis by other institutional investors, Wistron is believed to score net profits of up to NT$6 per share next year.
((SC)) (E) | |
| | ![]() | | | AmTRAN's Vizio LCD TVs Take Top Spot in North American Market
According to statistics compiled by DisplaySearch, Vizio commanded a 12.1% share of the North American market for liquid crystal display (LCD) TVs in the second quarter of this year, displacing Samsung and Sharp to become the top brand there. In the first quarter, Vizio ranked a mere fourth.
While Samsung fell to second place in North America in the second quarter and Sharp to third, Funai moved up to fourth place (from sixth) and Polaroid to fifth (from 11th).
Vizio is also big in shipments of plasma TVs, taking fourth place in the North American market in the second quarter. In all flat-panel TVs, Vizio's share of the market during that period was 11.9%.
Vizio provides a good example of how a small unknown brand, by using efficient production and consummate promotion, can emerge rapidly in the North American market despite fierce competition from large global brands.
DisplaySearch director David Hsieh attributed Vizio's success partly to solid production capability and partly to innovation promotion and good distribution channels, allowing the company to differentiate its product from others and to sell at low prices. To smooth its progress in the low-price market, AmTRAN has cultivated relations with large American distributors such as Circuit City, Sears, and Wal-mart.
The company manufactures its flat-screen TVs in China. Besides exporting them to big North American distributors, it also invests in local companies there so that it can use marketing strategies that conform to local consumer habits.
Vizio's LCD TVs are priced 30-40% lower than top-brand products; a 32-inch model, for instance, sells for US$599, far less than Sony and LG equivalents that are tagged at US$999 to US$1,1090. Visio's 42-inch model goes for just US$999 to US$1,999, while a similar Sharp TV sells for US$1,699 and Samsung moves its TVs for US$1,599.
This marketing strategy, plus two years of hard work, has helped Vizio establish a solid reputation in the North American Market. AmTRAN plans to build on that success by pouring another US$20 million in the promotion of its products there. | |
|
沒有留言:
張貼留言