E Ink Holdings Inc (元太科技), the world’s biggest e-paper display supplier, yesterday said first-quarter net profit more than doubled from a year ago on the back of strong demand for its e-paper displays.
Net income ballooned to NT$1.68 billion (US$58 million), or NT$1.56 per share, during the January-March period, compared with NT$704 million, or NT$0.70 a share, a year ago, the firm said.
E Ink supplies e-paper displays for Amazon’s Kindle e-reader series.
Photo: Chen Mei-ying, Taipei Times
On a quarterly basis, first-quarter net income dropped 12.5 percent from a record-high NT$1.92 billion, or NT$1.80 a share, in the final quarter of last year, as it shipped more lower-margin LCD panels last quarter.
As demand for LCD panels is expected to weaken this quarter, revenues are expected to fall from last quarter’s NT$10.09 billion, chairman Scott Liu (劉思誠) told an investor conference. He declined to comment on how big the drop would be.
“A lot of companies decided to redesign their tablet devices after Apple’s iPad 2 wowed the market with its ultra-thin [panel and strong performance],” Liu said.
LCD panels made up one-third of E Ink’s total revenues, while e-paper displays accounted for about two-thirds, Liu said.
A decline in shipments of LCD panels would mean less gross margin erosion, he said.
Gross margin is likely to recover to about 30 percent this quarter from 28.9 percent in the first three months of the year.
Shipments of e-paper displays this quarter are forecast to remain at the same level as in the first quarter, including shipments of the first batch of E Ink’s colored e-paper displays, Liu said, indicating that the launch of the iPad 2 did not cut into the demand for e-readers.
Liu reiterated his forecast that global shipments of e-readers would double or even triple to 20 million or 30 million units this year from 10 million last year.
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