Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), Taiwan's largest electronics exporter, posted a 36 percent gain in first-quarter profit on increased orders for Apple Computer Inc's iPod music players and Nokia Oyj mobile phones.
Net income rose to NT$9.98 billion (US$314 million), in line with analyst estimates, from NT$7.3 billion a year earlier.
Operating profit gained 30 percent, Hon Hai said in a statement yesterday.
Hon Hai shares have more than tripled in the past three years, increasing chairman Terry Gou's (郭台銘) fortune to US$4.3 billion. Gou was the world's 147th richest and ranked second in the nation.
First-quarter sales rose 31 percent to NT$175 billion from NT$133.4 billion, according to previously reported figures from Hon Hai. Operating profit increased to NT$6.1 billion from NT$4.6 billion.
"Consumer electronics like iPods and mobile phones were the main driver behind Hon Hai's first-quarter sales," said Kirk Yang (楊應超), an analyst at Citigroup Inc in Taipei.
Separately, Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦), the world's largest notebook computer maker, said its first-quarter profit rose 34 percent from a year earlier. Net income increased to NT$2.74 billion, or NT$0.85 a share in the three months ended March 31, from NT$2.04 billion, or NT$0.66, a year earlier, it said yesterday.
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