Wistron approves dividend as robust orders offset losses

Wistron Corp (緯創), the nation's leading contract maker of laptops, yesterday approved a dividend release for last year at its annual shareholder meeting, issuing a NT$2.2 (US$0.06) cash dividend per share and 60 percent stock dividend.

Chairman Simon Lin (林憲銘) told shareholders that the company would continue to diversify portfolios to sustain profit margins dragged down by notebook production.

The new businesses include storage, mobile devices and applications in digital home technology, he said.

Lin said the company's notebook computer shipments hit 750,000 units last month, and he forecast second-quarter shipments would reach 2.3 million units thanks to the Santa Rosa effect.

Wistron has recently enjoyed a boost in orders thanks to securing new business from Dell Inc for next year's consumer notebooks, CNA reported yesterday, citing reports by Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

The portable computers will start to be produced in the third quarter of this year, making Wistron the second-largest supplier to Dell after Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶電腦).

Apart from laptops, the company manufactures a variety of electronic items on a contract basis, including LCD TVs, global positioning (GPS) systems, smart phones and Nintendo Wii gaming consoles.

At the shareholder meeting, the company said 1 million LCD TVs, 1 million GPS systems and 500,000 smart phones would be shipped next year.

Wistron will also start assembling Wii consoles in the third quarter of the year, it said.