Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶電腦), the world’s No. 2 contract notebook computer maker, swung into a quarterly net profit last quarter after ridding itself of a massive divestment write-off in the first quarter.
Net profit reached NT$2.37 billion (US$79 million) in the quarter ending June 30, reversing a quarterly loss of NT$2.26 billion in the previous quarter, according to a company financial statement.
In the first quarter, Compal booked a one-time write-off of NT$4.73 billion from its disposal of unprofitable LCD panel maker Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (中華映管).
Operating profit jumped 20 percent to NT$2.88 billion last quarter, from NT$2.3 billion in the previous quarter. Its operating profit margin improved to 1.43 percent from 1.35 percent.
In the first half of the year, Compal’s net profit plunged 96 percent to NT$103 million, compared with NT$2.75 billion in the same period last year.
Excluding the write-off, Compal’s net income last quarter dropped 4 percent sequentially from a net profit of NT$2.46 billion, which was the strongest quarterly net income in 11 quarters.
That brought the company’s net profit in the first six months to NT$4.83 billion, a spike of 76 percent from NT$2.75 billion a year ago.
Compal yesterday booked non-operational losses of NT$190 million in the past quarter, primarily due to a foreign exchange loss of NT$729 million, the financial statement showed.
The company, which counts Dell Inc and Acer Inc (宏碁) as its major clients, yesterday said it still believes that its laptop computer shipments would grow between 5 percent and 10 percent sequentially this quarter, as it said in June, due to inventory buildup demand from customers.
Compal aims to grow notebook computer shipments by 7.8 percent this year to 40 million units, from last year’s 37 million units.
Separately, Wistron Corp (緯創), the world’s No. 3 contract laptop computer maker, yesterday posted NT$1.21 billion in net income for last quarter, soaring 2.5-fold from NT$342 million in the first quarter.
In the first half of this year, Wistron’s net income reached NT$1.55 billion. That represented an annual decline of 54 percent from NT$3.35 billion in the first half of last year.
Revenue fell 18.5 percent to NT$261.7 billion in the first half of this year, from NT$321.15 billion a year ago.
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