Shares of Firich Enterprises Co (
Firich's stocks rose more than 14-fold within the last three-and-a-half years, to hit a peak at NT$985 on July 10, when the firm announced it would buy stakes in the Singaporean financial consulting firm Armarda Group.
Its shares closed at NT$865 on Friday.
Analysts attributed the company's strong performance to its early foray into the lottery and casino gaming segment.
"The lottery and gaming market in Asia has surpassed the US. This gives Asian makers including Firich a say in determining specifications of new gaming machines," Concord Securities Co (康和證券) said in a report dated July 9.
Macau casinos, for example, are expected to register sales of US$7.6 billion this year, up 10.5 percent from last year. Las Vegas gambling houses, meanwhile, will only post a 0.01 percent rise to US$6.7 billion, Concord statistics showed.
Asian companies faced a high entry barrier in the past, as US firms set most of the gaming specifications. But as Asians have ushered in more casinos and lotteries, Taiwanese industrial computer makers have rapidly cashed in on the gambling boom.
When Firich was listed on the over-the-counter GRETAI Securities Market on Dec. 15, 2003, at NT$70 per share, investors were unsure about the worth of the listing price as it was much higher than the NT$30 per share given to other POS makers.
Today, analysts are wondering when Firich will follow High Tech Computer Corp (
Firich made its first foray into the lottery market in 2003, when it landed a contract to supply lottery terminals to a South Korean client.
Last year, the Taipei-based company saw business further take off.
Firich commissioned Intralot, a Greek betting technology company, to contract-produce lottery terminals. It also jumped onto the Chinese sports lottery industry by successfully shipping 10,000 terminals to 16 provinces.
"Lottery business will account for as much as 60 percent of our total revenues this year, compared with last year's 40 percent," Firich chief financial officer Lai Ying-fu (
Product margins are lucrative, with Firich making as much as 35 percent on terminals to Intralot, Concord said.
Firich is not alone in pursuing the fortunes generated by rolling dice.
Axiomtek Co (艾訊), another Taipei-based industrial computer maker, is expecting sales of its casino gaming machines to account for over 10 percent of total revenues in the second half of this year.
"The gaming industry is now heating up and we will continue to make more efforts to ensure we gain a stronger footing in the business," Axiomtek spokesperson Spring Yang (
The company has key accounts from Europe and the US and is in talks with a handful of other US clients for possible deals, she said.
ICP Electronics Inc (
The company, which celebrated its 10th anniversary in April, reportedly obtained its first order of lottery machines from Gtech Holdings, a US online lottery system provider. It beat other rivals including Advantec Co (
The order, worth NT$3.6 billion, will run over five years, the Chinese-language Apple Daily reported on July 10.
The company refused to comment on the orders.
Despite the high competition, Firich said it found out what it needs to do next to ensure its continued success.
On July 4, the maker signed a pact with Hong Kong-based LottVision Ltd, an operator of lottery solutions, followed, on July 10, by an announcement that it would acquire a 11.3 percent stake in Armarda for S$14 million (NT$647,000) to further boost its sales of POS devices and lottery kiosks in China.
Under the agreement with LottVision, ownership of Wu Sheng Technology Co (
As LottVision has started to tap into the sports lottery market in China and other Asian countries, this will be a plus to Firich as it seeks to strengthen its presence across the Taiwan Strait and move into other regional markets, a Concord research note said.
"Selling hardware machines is a one-shot deal and we will have to wait for the orders for replacement in three to five years," Lai said.
But the strategic partnership with LottVision will pave the way for Firich to "gain a share in the lottery operator market as well," he said.
"Operators would gain stable and recurring income from lotteries, which places us one step ahead of our competitors," he said.
China’s chip industry is growing faster than anywhere else in the world, after US sanctions on local champions — from Huawei Technologies Co (華為) to Hikvision Digital Technology Co (海康威視) — spurred appetite for homegrown components. Nineteen of the world’s 20 fastest-growing chip industry firms over the past four quarters, on average, hail from the world’s No. 2 economy, data compiled by Bloomberg showed. That compared with just eight firms at the same point last year. Revenue at China-based suppliers of design software, processors and gear vital to chipmaking is increasing at several times the pace of global leaders Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co
Had Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck hopped on an electric scooter rather than a Vespa in the classic film Roman Holiday, their spin around the Eternal City might have ended in tears. The number of crashes and near-misses involving the two-wheelers has prompted Rome authorities to impose some order on a booming rental market that began two years ago. The havoc came to a head earlier this month when two US tourists attempted a night-time drive down the Spanish Steps, causing more than 25,000 euros (US$26,392) worth of damage to the 18th-century monument. Caught on security footage, the couple in their late 20s
POSITIVE SIGNS: GlobalWafers has continued to sign long-term supply agreements, most of which exceed 2028, and aside from one factory, it is running at full capacity GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s third-largest silicon wafer maker, yesterday said that Samsung Electronics Co and most of its customers have not scaled back on orders, or delayed shipments, even though consumer spending has shifted away from smartphones and notebook computers due to mounting inflation pressures. Rising inflation has altered consumers’ spending habits, dampening sales of consumer electronics, the Hsinchu-based company said. However, customers all honored their supply agreements by adjusting their product mix and shifting to applications that are still reporting robust growth, it said. Aside from one 6-inch factory, GlobalWafers’ 15 factories around the world are running at 100 percent
Nearly a quarter of European companies in China are considering shifting their investments out of the country as COVID-19 outbreaks and lockdowns dim the outlook for the world’s second-largest economy, a survey showed. About 23 percent of the businesses that responded to the survey are thinking of moving their current or planned investments away from China, a report released yesterday by the EU Chamber of Commerce in China said. The survey was conducted at the end of April, when Shanghai was still in shut down and restrictions in places like Jilin Province disrupted business activity. The number of European firms reassessing
RSS