Aided by rising Asian sales, medical devices supplier Swissray Global Healthcare Holding Ltd (SRG, 環瑞醫控股) yesterday said it aims to swing to profitability next year.
The company posted a loss of NT$399.08 million (US$12.9 million), or NT$3.16 per share, in the first three quarters of the year because of higher research and development (R&D) costs and marketing expenses.
That compares with a loss of NT$157.75 million, or NT$1.8 per share, a year ago, Swissray said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Chief executive Jack Lee (李典忠) said spending on R&D and to promote its products in the Middle East, Russia and more Asian markets would continue next year, but Swissray’s bottom line should improve as sales grow.
Swissray expects to report double-digit annual revenue growth next year, after two of its X-ray imaging systems and its Norland bone densitometer were approved for sale in China this year, Lee said.
Swissray chairman Lee Tsu-der (李祖德) suggested that annual shipments would double next year.
From January through last month, Swissray reported a revenue of NT$492.89 million, up 83.65 percent from NT$224.51 million a year ago.
Its eponymous X-ray machines accounted for 23 percent of its revenue of NT$426.37 million in the first nine months of the year, while Norland bone densitometers contributed 9.2 percent and Novadaq molecular imaging products 5.1 percent, Swissray said.
Equipment maintenance revenue accounted for 62.7 percent of its sales during the period, down from 75.68 percent a year ago, it said.
Its long-term goal is to make its Swissray, Novadaq and Norland products provide 70 percent of total revenue, Jack Lee said.
The company was founded last year. Lee Tsu-der had acquired Switzerland-based X-ray machine maker Swissray Medical AG in March 2011, with its technology knowhow and access to retail channels in Europe and the US.
To expand its portfolio, Swissray acquired Norland’s bone densitometer assets from US-based medical and surgical device provider Cooper Surgical Inc last year, and contracted with Canadian medical device maker Novadaq Technologies Inc in November last year to distribute its products in 10 Asian nations, it said.
“Our strategy is to use products of renowned brands to enter Asian markets,” Lee Tsu-der said.
Asian sales provided 20 percent of its revenue in the past three quarters, it said.
It is set to shift its listing to the GRETAI Securities Market on Dec. 23, issuing 160 million shares, said Will Tsai (蔡揚威), Swissray’s executive assistant to the chairman, adding that the company has not yet set the share price.
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
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the