TPK Holding Co (宸鴻), a major supplier of touch modules for Apple Inc’s iPhone smartphones and iPad tablet computers, yesterday posted a 23 percent quarter-on-quarter revenue increase, beating the company’s forecast of a slight decrease.
TPK posted a new record-high revenue figure for last month of NT$17.06 billion (US$557 million), up 53.7 percent from NT$11.1 billion in August, or more than double the NT$7.12 billion a year ago.
That brought the touch-module and touch-sensor maker’s third-quarter revenues to NT$40.05 billion, up 23.1 percent from NT$32.53 billion in the April-to-June period.
TPK had said revenues would shrink by 3 percent to 5 percent quarter-on-quarter, as major customers became conservative about making orders ahead of product launches.
That also surpassed the 5 to 10 percent quarterly growth forecast projected by UBS Securities analyst Arthur Hsieh (謝宗文) on Sept. 14.
The stronger-than-expected performance bodes well for the company’s fourth-quarter outlook, as TPK financial executive Freddie Liu (劉詩亮) told investors in August that growth momentum would pick up last month after hitting bottom in August and that the strength would increase in the fourth quarter.
“We do not see demand ebbing in the fourth quarter,” company chairman David Sun (孫大明) told local business news channel Unique Satellite TV on the sidelines of an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting held by TPK’s touch-sensor subsidiary Cando Corp (達鴻先進).
Apart from Apple, Sun said TPK also landed orders from new customers in China, Japan and South Korea.
However, Wintek Corp (勝華), which also supplies touch panels to Apple, said on Tuesday that revenues decreased 18.38 percent to NT$7.36 billion last month, from NT$9.01 billion in August.
The Greater Taichung-based flat panel maker blamed decreased demand for lower-margin LCD panels behind the revenue decline.
In the third quarter, Wintek accumulated NT$24.93 billion in revenue, up 14.57 percent from NT$21.76 billion in the second quarter.
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