The board of E Ink Holdings Inc (元太科技) has approved a plan to boost its payout ratio to 50 percent after the company posted record-breaking net profits last year, the firm said yesterday.
E Ink, which manufactures the displays used in 90 percent of the world’s e-readers, including -Amazon.com Inc’s Kindle series, plans to deliver a cash dividend of NT$3 (US$0.10) per share, representing a yield of 7.06 percent based on Friday’s closing price of NT$42.5.
The company, based in Hsinchu, is scheduled to hold an annual shareholder’s meeting on June 18 to seek final approval for the increased dividend distribution.
“E Ink will focus more on developing new patents and technologies, and the company is cautiously optimistic about the growth of the e-reader market this year,” E Ink chairman Scott Liu (劉思誠) said in a statement issued yesterday.
E Ink posted a 43 percent quarterly decline in net profits for the fourth quarter of last year, dropping to NT$1.26 billion, which it attributed to an increase in shipments of lower-margin LCD panels and slower demand from clients amid product transitions.
E Ink’s net income grew 62 percent to NT$6.53 billion, or NT$6.05 per share, last year compared with NT$4.03 billion, or NT$3.81 a share, in 2010.
Revenues also increased to a record-high NT$38.43 billion, up 53 percent from NT$25.18 billion a year ago.
The board also approved the appointment of Felix Ho (何奕達) as vice chairman, paving the way for Ho to succeed 63-year-old Liu as chairman.
Ho will retain his post as chairman of the company’s US subsidiary, E Ink Corp, the statement said.
Ho, 38, is son of Yuen Foong Yu Group’s (永豐餘集團) chairman Ho Shou-chuan (何壽川). E Ink is the e-reader display manufacturing arm of Yuen Foong Yu.
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