Shares of Inventec Corp (英業達) rallied 1.26 percent on speculation that the nation’s No. 4 notebook computer maker has landed an order from US’ biggest bookstore chain Barnes & Noble Inc, making it the first local PC company to diversify into the fledgling e-reader business.
It could be a major step by the company in its long-term efforts to broaden product lineup to help stem decline in gross margin. Inventec’s gross margin fell to 3.43 percent in the first half of the year, from less than 5 percent a year ago.
Inventec’s stock price rose NT$0.25 to NT$20.05 yesterday, hitting its highest level since July 14, when it closed at NT$20.85. The benchmark TAIEX only inched up 0.91 percent.
Inventec might start shipping the first batch of e-readers to Barnes & Noble in the first quarter of next year, the Chinese-language Commercial Times reported yesterday, citing unspecified sources. Barnes & Noble has ordered 1 million e-readers from Inventec, the report said.
The US bookseller was reportedly ready to start selling electronic readers later this month, to compete with Amazon.com, which is expanding sales of its popular e-reader Kindle series outside the US.
Shipments of e-readers are expected to surge to 26.5 million units in 2013, compared with an estimate of 2.85 million units this year and 1 million units last year, research house Topology Research Institute (拓墣產業研究所) forecast.
Inventec had no comment on the report yesterday, adding that it was pure media speculation, a company statement filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange showed.
Inventec is expected to ship about 20 percent more units to around 30 million next year from approximately 25 million units, riding on growing demand for laptop computers, according to a report released by Taipei-based research house DRAMeXchange Technology Inc (集邦科技) yesterday.
Separately, Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶), the nation’s second-biggest laptop computer maker, said monthly sales of NT$67.35 million (US$2 billion) had set a record high for a third straight month last month.
That brought third-quarter revenues to NT$175.94 billion, up 48.9 percent year-on-year, or 41.2 percent quarter-on-quarter.
Shipments also set an all-time high at 4.15 million units, Compal said. In the first nine months, shipments stood at 22.95 million units, reaching 66 percent of its forecast of 35 million units for this year.
Compal shares jumped 2.02 percent to NT$40.5 yesterday.
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