Compal Electronics Co (仁寶電腦), the world’s No. 2 contract laptop computer maker, yesterday reported net income of NT$4.48 billion (US$142.22 million) for last quarter, a rise of 78 percent year-on-year and 68 percent from the previous quarter, thanks to strong demand for its smart device segment.
Compal’s earnings per share totaled NT$1.63 for the whole of last year and the firm received approval from its board to distribute a dividend of NT$1.5 per share, the firm said in a statement.
Compal chief financial officer Gary Lu (呂清雄) said the company expects to report a year-on-year growth in revenue this quarter, driven by its smart device and notebook segments.
“The performance this quarter will definitely be better than the same period last year, thanks to the orders from new clients for our smartphone segment,” Lu said at a news conference, without giving an estimate on the range of year-on-year growth.
However, revenue this quarter is likely to decline 15 percent from the NT$246.4 billion posted last quarter due to seasonal factors, Lu said.
Sales last month and this month slowed as it is the off-season in the technology cycle, and there were fewer working days, but business would pick up next month and boost the quarterly performance, Lu said.
The company expects its notebook shipments this quarter to decline 20 percent from 11.6 million units recorded last quarter, but it expects shipments of smartphones and tablet devices to post double-digit growth this quarter.
Looking forward, the company sees its notebook shipments remaining flat this year, but it expects to outperform its peers, citing stable orders from clients.
The company shipped a total of 43 million notebooks last year, beating the company’s forecast of 40 million units and outpacing the industry as a whole, which saw a decline of 2 percent from the previous year, Lu said.
Lu said Compal is optimistic about its smart device segment this year due to new orders for smartphones.
Compal’s non-notebook segment accounted for 23 percent of its total revenues last year, Lu said, adding that the firm expects its non-notebook segment to account for 30 percent this year.
Lu said the company’s Internet of Things-related segment, including servers, automotive electronics products and networking devices, accounted for 3 percent of its total revenues last year.
“We also expect the sales contribution to increase to 4 percent of the total revenues this year,” he said.
Commenting on the company’s display segment, Lu said Compal expects the shipment of televisions to increase 10 percent from last year’s 4 million units, fueled by new non-Japanese clients.
Lu said that the company has started to ship small amounts of televisions for its new clients.
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