Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶電腦), the world’s No. 2 contract laptop computer maker, yesterday posted its weakest quarterly net profit in about eight years amid sluggish demand for notebook computers and bigger asset losses.
Net profits declined 11 percent to NT$1.55 billion (US$51 million), or NT$0.31 per share, compared with NT$1.74 billion, or NT$0.37 per share, in the third quarter of last year, according to the company’s financial statement.
The quarterly results marked the lowest level since the third quarter of 2004.
Compal blamed a higher non-operating loss for the quarterly decline in net income, according to a company statement.
Non-operating losses expanded to NT$378 million last quarter from NT$19 million in the third quarter last year, the statement showed.
Gross margin shrank to 4 percent last quarter, from 4.3 percent in the previous quarter and 4.6 percent in the same period last year.
Global notebook computer shipments grew 2.7 percent quarter-on-quarter to 48.52 million units in the final quarter of last year, according to research house Digitimes. On annual basis, that represented a decline of 3.75 percent.
For the whole year of last year, net profits plummeted 42 percent to NT$7.26 billion, or NT$1.47 per share, compared with NT$11.02 billion, or NT$2.53 a share, in 2011.
The figure exceeded SinoPac Securities Co (永豐金證券) analyst Mark Chen’s (陳彥廷) forecast of NT$6.74 billion.
Chen forecast Compal’s laptop computer shipments to drop by 5 percent or 6 percent sequentially in the first quarter, he wrote in a report released last week.
For the whole year, he expected Compal would ship 45 million units of laptops, up 18 percent from his estimate of 38 million units last year. Chen gave a “neutral” rating on Compal.
Separately, Compal said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange that it requested Tatung Co (大同) to fulfill its promise to buy back the 2.8 billion shares of local flat-panel maker Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (中華映管) owned by Compal for NT$7 billion plus interest.
Compal subscribed to Chunghwa Picture Tubes shares in July 2009. Tatung agreed to buy back those shares, if Compal requested it.
Compal said it has sent a complaint to the Chinese Arbitration Association to help solve the dispute.
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦), the world’s biggest contract notebook computer, yesterday posted NT$23.42 billion in net profits for last year.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last