LG.Philips LCD Co, the world's second-largest maker of liquid-crystal displays (LCD), reported record quarterly profit after a shortage boosted the prices of screens used in desktop computers and laptops.
Fourth-quarter net income was 760 billion won (US$811 million), compared with a 174.3 billion won loss a year earlier, Seoul-based LG.Philips said yesterday. That beat the 654 billion won median estimate of 17 analysts whom Bloomberg surveyed by phone and e-mail.
LG.Philips posted its highest annual sales as LCD manufacturers widened their lead over plasma displays in the US$93 billion flat-panel market. Analysts at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc and Citigroup Inc predict the company will post record profit this year as the shortage of LCDs persists.
"2008 is going to be best year for LG.Philips in terms of earnings," said Woo Jun-sik, an analyst at Tong Yang Investment Bank in Seoul, who has a "buy" rating on LG.Philips. "Supply is tight and panel prices are not likely to fall more than previous years."
LG.Philips is the first major LCD maker to disclose earnings for the latest quarter. Suwon, South Korea-based Samsung Electronics Co, the industry's largest producer, reports today. Hsinchu, Taiwan-based AU Optronics reports next month. Sharp Corp, Japan's largest LCD maker, is scheduled to disclose results on Feb. 1.
Revenue, including those of overseas affiliates, climbed to a record 14.35 trillion won last year, the company said.
Annual operating profit and net income were the highest since 2004.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
Hong Kong authorities ramped up sales of the local dollar as the greenback’s slide threatened the foreign-exchange peg. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) sold a record HK$60.5 billion (US$7.8 billion) of the city’s currency, according to an alert sent on its Bloomberg page yesterday in Asia, after it tested the upper end of its trading band. That added to the HK$56.1 billion of sales versus the greenback since Friday. The rapid intervention signals efforts from the city’s authorities to limit the local currency’s moves within its HK$7.75 to HK$7.85 per US dollar trading band. Heavy sales of the local dollar by
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
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