Acer Inc, the world's fifth-biggest seller of personal computers, said it expects sales to grow about 40 percent to 50 percent this year and next, predicting that it will gain market share from International Business Machines Corp.
The sale by IBM of its personal-computer unit last month to China's Lenovo Group Ltd (
Lanci, 50, said Acer's share of the global PC market may rise to about 4.5 percent to 5 percent by the end of this year, up from 3.6 percent share in March. Lenovo and IBM had combined market share of 7.1 percent in the first quarter, according to IDC.
Some of IBM's corporate clients have started to review their purchase plans after the Lenovo-IBM deal, Lanci said, declining to elaborate. Acer is investing in brand promotion and improving distribution networks to expand in the in the US and China, and become one of the world's top three PC sellers by 2007.
Lanci, who took over the running of the company in September, plans to reduce the company's dependence on Europe, where it generates almost two-thirds of its sales. He said the company has no plans for acquisitions and can reach its growth targets on its own.
Acer considered buying IBM's PC business but the US company had asked for too much, said Lanci, who is based in Milan, Italy, and visits Taiwan one week every month.
He also said the company isn't planning to revise its sales and profit forecasts, citing already "very aggressive" goals.
Acer in December forecast consolidated sales of US$9 billion and net income of US$229 million for this year.
* Sales will grow 40 percent to 50 percent both this year and next.
* The company's share of the global PC market will rise to 4.5 percent or 5 percent by the end of this year, up from 3.6 percent in March.
* The company will become one of the world's top three PC sellers by 2007.
"Shares are doing well," said Lanci. "We can even expect something better in the coming months if we can continue to show this kind of performance."
Shares in Acer added 0.2 percent yesterday to NT$61.50.
The euro's fall of about 11 percent against the US dollar this year will have little effect on the company, he said.
"The depreciation of the euro may be bad for the personal-computer industry on one side, but on the other side it's good for the European economy," Lanci said. "We're not going to change [our hedging policy]; usually we want to go with a 100 percent hedge."
The company is rapidly expanding in the US after retreating from the retail market there because of big losses. In the next two years, Acer expects sales in the Americas to reach 20 percent to 25 percent of its total, up from about 10 percent now. By 2007, Europe, Africa and the Middle East will make up about half of Acer's sales, with Asia accounting for about a quarter, Lanci said.
"Before it was about 70 to 80 percent of revenue came from the retail business," Lanci said. "We would like to do the opposite: maybe 30 to 40 percent coming from retail and 60 to 70 percent" coming from small- and medium-sized businesses.
The retail share of Acer's PC sales will rise to about 40 percent by the end of this year, about double the current level, he said.
China is another market the company will target, aiming to raise its ranking there to about No. 5 by the end of next year.
"In terms of products, notebook computers are growing much faster [than desktops] and we can take advantage of this new situation in China," he said.
RSS