The pre-tax profits of Taiwan’s listed companies in the first three quarters of the year dropped by 30.08 percent year-on-year amid the debt crisis in Europe and the US, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said on Wednesday.
Aside from Mega Biotech & Electronics Co (美嘉生電) and -ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德科技), all the listed companies — 1,339 in total — have submitted their financial reports, the FSC said.
REVENUES UP
Based on the commission’s statistics, companies listed on the local main board have recorded NT$12.75 trillion (US$424.34 billion) in revenue in the first three quarters, up by NT$325.6 billion, or 2.62 percent, compared with the same period last year, with a total pretax profit of NT$842.1 billion, down by NT$362.2 billion from a year earlier.
Wu Quei-mao (吳桂茂), chief secretary of FSC’s Securities and Futures Bureau, said the gross margin narrowed on weak end-market demand, which was caused by the debt crisis in Europe and the US, as well as increasing oil prices.
As a result, the companies posted profit declines despite revenue growth.
FIRMS AFFECTED
As for companies listed on the local over-the-counter market, the first-three-quarter revenue was NT$1.0556 trillion, falling by 3.01 percent, or NT$32.7 billion, from a year earlier, with NT$54 billion in pretax profits, plummeting by 47.06 percent year-on-year, or NT$48 billion, the FSC said.
Companies that saw the biggest profit declines belonged to the optoelectronics, semiconductor, shipping and electronic components industries.
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