Print

Mail

wiki links

BenQ forecasting second-quarter growth of over 5%

BenQ Corp (明基電通), the nation's No. 1 mobile-phone maker, told investors yesterday that revenue in the second quarter is expected to increase over 5 percent from last quarter and rise 78 percent year-on-year.

The company said growth in this quarter would be driven by products such as handsets, personal computers and projectors.

"The challenge in the second quarter lies in the tight production of optical or electronics raw materials, which may restrain growth," BenQ chairman Lee Kun-yao (李焜耀) said at an investor conference yesterday.

The company also reported consolidated sales of NT$42.22 billion (US$1.28 million) in the first quarter, an increase of 15 percent from last quarter and a 56-percent jump from a year ago, with pre-tax income hitting NT$3.3 billion.

Earnings rose by 30 percent quarter-on-quarter, up 109 percent year-on-year, to NT$3.07 billion, with earnings per share of NT$1.48, up from NT$1.12 last quarter.

But BenQ saw its gross margin fall to 12.7 percent for the January-March quarter from 13.1 percent last quarter due to higher prices for liquid-crystal display (LCD) panels, changes in foreign exchange rates and a change in product composition, the company's associate vice president Alex Liou (劉維宇) said.

"The company's performance in the first quarter has been consistent with our expectations," said Stevie Chou (周奇賢), vice president of research for SinoPac Securities Corp (建華證券).

Chou said the company's earnings per share were higher than the NT$1.43 estimated by investors.

To lift its gross margin in the second quarter, the company said it will increase production of non-LCD monitor products, including handsets and projectors, as well as target European and Asia-Pacific markets to promote their branded products.

Handsets are the company's most lucrative business, Chou said. He added that the gross margin for handsets sold under the company's name can reach 30 percent, whereas the margin for original-design manufactured (ODM) handsets ranges from 15 percent to 20 percent. The margin for other products is around 10 percent to 15 percent.

BenQ said handset sales contributed 25 percent to first-quarter revenue, with shipments hitting more than 4 million units. It expects to ship more than 5 million units in the second quarter.
This story has been viewed 2220 times.