Touch-panel manufacturer TPK Holdings Co (宸鴻) yesterday reported record-high revenues last month on the back of robust demand from tablet and smartphone customers, lending support to analysts’ predictions that quarterly sales growth would easily exceed 30 percent.
Revenue grew 37.3 percent to NT$23.25 billion (US$799 million) last month, from NT$16.94 billon in October. That represented 56 percent annual growth from NT$14.9 billion.
“The growth is fueled by end demand for tablets and cellphones,” TPK chief financial executive Freddie Liu (劉詩亮) said by telephone.
Liu told investors last week that it would be easy for TPK to see 30 percent sequential growth in revenue this quarter.
“Some analysts have raised their forecast to about 50 percent sequential growth,” Liu said yesterday.
However, revenues this month would begin to slide because of a seasonal slowdown, he said.
Jerry Su (蘇厚合), an LCD industry analyst with Credit Suisse, forecast TPK’s revenue would grow 39 percent this quarter from last quarter’s NT$35.63 billion, according to a report released yesterday.
Su said TPK should also benefit from the better yield for iPad Mini film sensors. He said a supply constraint of indium tin oxide (ITO) film sensor used in the iPad Mini has eased lately after Japanese maker Nissha Printing improved its yield.
TPK would also benefit from a potential technology shift should Apple replace in-cell touch technology with one-glass-solution (OGS) or touch-on-lens (TOL) technology for its smartphones.
Su does not expect the change to happen overnight, saying that he believes Apple is unlikely to switch out of “in cell” and adopt OGS in the first half of next year.
TPK lost orders to supply touch panels for the iPhone 5 after Apple decided to use in-cell touch panels, which the company does not produce.
The speculation about Apple’s technology shift boosted the share prices of TPK and another touch panel supplier, Wintek Corp (勝華), by 1.64 percent and 6.83 percent to NT$496.50 and NT$15.65 respectively, outpacing the TAIEX’s 0.63 percent rise.
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