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Asustek to market TVs in Europe

Two models present Asustek Computer's new 42-inch LCD TV, which features an interactive program guide and is priced at NT$89,900, at a press conference held in Taipei yesterday. PHOTO: CHEN MEI-YING, TAIPEI TIMES

Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦), the world's biggest motherboard manufacturer, has announced plans to enter the European market with its own liquid-crystal-display (LCD) televisions in Europe, the world's biggest TV market, to boost its brand business.

The company has been diversifying into consumer electronics with brand-name products to fuel growth amid narrowing margins in the contract manufacturing business.

Late last year, Asustek tapped into the LCD TV market by unveiling its first model with a 32-inch screen and a high price tag in the domestic market, setting it up in competition with the industry's top brand, Sony Corp.

Nine months later, Asustek yesterday launched its second flat-screen model, featuring a 42-inch screen, and said it was looking beyond its home market this time.

"Entering the European market will be our first step next year. China will be next," Benson Lin (林宗樑), general manager of Asustek's Asia-Pacific unit.

Europe accounted for more than 40 percent of the world's total LCD TV sales of 9.4 million units in the second quarter of this year, according to market researcher DispalySearch.

To meet demand for consumers with a big living room, Asustek plans to roll out 37-inch, 46-inch and 47-inch LCD TVs next year.

Lin said that Asustek aimed to sell 800 more LCD TV sets a month locally by the year's end after racking up a total of 2,000 sales in the first eight months of the year, Lin said.

A total of 300,000 LCD TV sets were sold under around 30 brands in Taiwan in the same period.

Asustek also sells brand-name mobile phones and laptop computers, as well as computer motherboards.

With its own-brand business having grown to account for about 45 percent of the company's total revenues, Asustek told investors that it was planning to split off its brand-name unit from its contract manufacturing business in the next three years.

The separation would mark another big restructuring program after Acer Inc, the world's No. 4 computer vendor, took the lead among local firms in spinning off its contract manufacturing business to create Wistron Corp (緯創) in 2002.

Asustek posted NT$142.76 billion (US$4.3 billion) in revenues for the first half of this year and NT$7.12 billion, or NT$2.35 per share, in net profits. Profit margin was less than 4 percent.

Asustek shares jumped 1.31 percent to NT$77.5 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday, outperforming the 0.14 percent loss of the benchmark TAIEX.

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