Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶電腦) chairman Rock Hsu (許勝雄) yesterday said the company aims to ship a total of 100 million units this year, nearly 25 percent more than last year’s 76 million units, driven by increasing demand for non-notebook products.
“We aim to increase the sales contribution from non-notebook products to 30 percent of total revenue from last year’s 23 percent,” Hsu said in a report yesterday.
The report is to be distributed to shareholders on June 26.
The company shipped 32.8 million non-notebook products last year, of which 20 million units were handsets, the report said.
Consolidated revenue totaled NT$845.7 billion (US$27.54 billion) last year, with net profit reaching NT$7.55 billion, or earnings per share of NT$1.63, according to a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
As part of an effort to boost the company’s sales and shipments of non-notebook items, Compal is cooperating with Chang Gung University to set up a research and development center for smart medical and smart healthcare wearable devices, Hsu said.
The company is aggressively targeting the Internet of Things market by seeking strategic alliances and integrating Compal’s internal server, networking and automotive electronics segments’ resources, he said.
“The company plans to first focus on investments in smart home, smart car and smart medical products for the Internet of Things market,” Hsu said.
After its acquisition of a minority stake in Avalue Technology Inc (安勤) last year, Compal this year plans to invest in industrial computing companies to expand its exposure to the industrial computer market, he said.
Compal is to buy stakes in at least two small industrial computing companies before the end of this year, president Ray Chen (陳瑞聰) said at an investors’ conference on May 11.
“We expect these investments to play a key role in driving Compal’s revenue and profitability growth over the next three to five years,” Hsu said.
Compal’s smartphone business played a significant role in growing the firm’s revenue last year due to rapid growth in the market and increasing orders from clients, Hsu said.
This month, shipments of non-notebook products are expected to grow by a double-digit percentage quarterly on the back of clients’ new smartphone projects, Chen said.
While the tablet market has shown signs of slowing down, Compal would still be able to grow from last year, fueled by new customers’ contributions, Hsu said.
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