HTC Corp (宏達電), the world’s leading maker of smartphones running Windows and Android platforms, yesterday reported a 32.8 percent rise in net income to NT$8.6 billion (US$269 million) in the second quarter, on the back of robust smartphone demand across the globe. Riding on the momentum and rising brand awareness, HTC forecast a record high in revenues in the third quarter, with shipments to be doubled.
Net income was NT$8.6 billion, or NT$11.16 per share in the second quarter, up from NT$6.5 billion, or NT$8.3 a share, from the corresponding period last year.
Revenues hit a record high of NT$61 billion, 59.8 percent growth from last year, while handset shipments grew 80 percent to 5.4 million units in the second quarter.
In April, HTC said it expected to see record-high revenues of NT$50 billion in the second quarter, with smartphone sales to grow 50 percent to 4.5 million units.
“Second-quarter revenues now put us at a similar scale to international handset brands,” HTC spokesman and chief financial officer Cheng Hui-ming (鄭慧明) told an online investor conference. “Contrary to market belief that our strong performance would only last for one or two quarters, this performance shows our competitiveness in the industry.”
Starting from this year, some of its flagship models saw sales of “multi-million units,” a confidence boost to the company as it saw sales of flagship models reach only 1 million units in the past, HTC investor relations director Joey Cheng (鄭昭義) said.
“Sell-through of some models is fast,” he said, adding that consumers were receptive to HTC’s key offerings, including the Incredible, Desire, HD2 and Evo.
The company expects revenues to hit a record high of NT$70 billion in the third quarter, up 106 percent from the same period last year. It said shipments would expand more than 130 percent to 6.5 million units.
Goldman Sachs analyst Robert Chen (陳柏宇) said HTC’s shipment forecast of 6.5 million was on the low side.
“It [HTC] should already have more orders on hand now [because of the seasonality factor in the third quarter],” Chen said, adding that component shortages had been factored in the forecast.
HTC yesterday also announced a management move, with the appointments of Ron Louks and Kouji Kodera — two seasoned executives from rival Sony Ericsson — to join the Taiwanese firm as chief strategy officer and chief product officer.
The two newly created positions are aimed at tapping both executives’ talent to enhance global HTC brand awareness, the company said.
Shares of HTC closed up by the 7 percent daily limit in Taipei yesterday to NT$570 per share before the investor conference. HTC’s shares were up 55.5 percent since the beginning of the year, against the 4.75 percent drop of the benchmark TAIEX.
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