Shares of notebook computer hinge maker Sinher Technology Inc (鑫禾) yesterday rose 20 percent on the company’s Taiwan Stock Exchange debut.
The stock price of the New Taipei City (新北市)-based company, which also produces hinges for all-in-one PCs, point-of-sales machines and projectors, opened at NT$73, 14 percent higher than its initial public offering price of NT$63.80.
It closed at NT$76.60, after pulling back from an intraday high of NT$78, up 20.06 percent from its IPO price and outperforming the benchmark TAIEX, which ended 0.65 percent lower at 8,201.02.
Founded in 2002, Sinher is one of the nation’s leading computer hinge makers, along with Shin Zu Shing Co (新日興) and Jarllytec Co (兆利).
Shares of Shin Zu Shin fell 1.1 percent to NT$82.50 and those of Jarllytec slid 0.37 percent to NT$26.90, stock exchange data showed.
Sinher, which is 27 percent owned by metal casing maker Catcher Technology Co (可成科技), counts PC brands Hewlett-Packard Co, Dell Inc and Lenovo Group (聯想) among its major clients and has garnered new orders from Acer Inc (宏碁) and Asustek Computer Inc’s (華碩) transformable notebooks this year.
The company is also a supplier to major PC contract makers such as Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) and Wistron Corp (緯創).
However, like other companies in the PC supply chain, Sinher faces pricing pressure from PC makers, which have turned to their suppliers to cut costs and raise profitability, amid an increasingly negative business environment.
Global PC shipments are expected to fall by an annual rate of 7.8 percent to 321.9 million units this year as they are increasingly replaced by mobile devices, International Data Corp (IDC) said last week. The forecast was worse than a decline of 1.3 percent that IDC had forecast previously.
In the first quarter of the year, Sinher’s net profit grew 98 percent year-on-year to NT$86.75 million (US$2.89 million), or earnings per share (EPS) of NT$1.42, but fell 20 percent from the previous quarter.
Revenue was NT$435.03 million in the first quarter, up 19 percent year-on-year, but down 24 percent quarter-on-quarter. Gross margin was 37.42 percent.
The company’s revenue for this quarter is forecast to increase 5.3 percent to NT$458 million from last quarter, thanks to more working days and new orders, such as transformable and ultra-thin notebooks, Capital Securities Corp (群益證券) said in a note yesterday.
Gross margin is expected to rise on higher revenues, but net profit is estimated to fall 2.3 percent to NT$84.8 million from last quarter, or EPS of NT$1.25, the brokerage forecast.
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