Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), the world’s fifth-largest PC brand, yesterday reported its consolidated revenue had contracted 21.67 percent to NT$32.59 billion (US$1.099 billion) last month from NT$41.61 billion the previous month.
“The company’s sales in April were in line with our expectations. We forecast that the second quarter of the year will be stable,” Asustek chief financial officer David Chang (張偉明) said in a text message yesterday.
Asked to comment on the month-on-month double-digit decline, Chang said: “March [sales] are always higher than those in April,” adding that “China [the Chinese market] is always strong in March.”
On an annual basis, Asustek’s sales last month grew 9.8 percent from NT$29.68 billion the previous year.
During the first four months, Asustek’s accumulated sales were NT$146.63 billion, up 14.3 percent compared with NT$128.23 billion in the same period last year.
On Monday, Asustek told an investors’ conference that it plans to launch a slew of “hero products,” including all-in-one computers, notebooks and tablets, at the annual Computex trade fair in Taipei next month.
Asustek’s sales are likely to be flat this quarter from last quarter, before the company starts shipping new products in the third quarter, the company said.
Adopting a more conservative approach for its guidance on the second quarter, Asustek forecast its notebook shipments, tablet shipments and motherboard shipments this quarter would edge up or down a low single-digit percentage from 4.7 million units, 3 million units and 5 million units last quarter respectively.
Separately, Wistron Corp (緯創), the world’s third-biggest contract notebook maker, yesterday reported that its first-quarter net profit contracted 13.44 percent to NT$1.61 billion from NT$1.86 billion in the same period last year.
Earnings per share during the January-to-March period were NT$0.74, down 17.77 percent from NT$0.9 the previous year.
The company’s first-quarter financial statement said it had written down interest expenses and mark-to-market evaluation losses of NT$175.57 million as it began following International Financial Reporting Standards this year.
Wistron’s board yesterday approved a capital injection of US$10 million in Wistron Mobile Solutions Corp to develop new handset products.
Wistron had previously listed US$10 million in its budget for research and development of handheld devices earlier this year, it said.
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