Largan Precision Co (大立光) yesterday said sales for next month would be higher than this month, thanks to increasing orders from clients.
“This month’s sales are likely to stay flat from last month, but the figure will pick up next month,” Largan chief executive officer Adam Lin (林恩平) told a media briefing after the annual shareholders’ meeting held at the company’s headquarters in Taichung.
Largan manufactures lenses used in cameras for smartphones and information technology products and it counts Apple Inc among its main clients. Smartphone camera lenses account for more than 80 percent of the firm’s total revenue.
Lin expects the company’s revenue to grow quarter-by-quarter this year, given the company’s seasonal pattern of strong growth momentum in the second half.
“Overall, the second half of this year is expected to outperform the first half due to traditional peak season,” he said.
Shipments of 10-megapixel and above products accounted for between 20 percent and 30 percent of last month’s sales of NT$4.41 billion (US$141.55 million), Largan said.
As the migration to higher megapixel modules in the smartphone industry continues, many clients are ordering 12-megapixel or 13-megapixel lenses, while orders for 16-megapixel lenses are also increasing, Lin said.
India increasingly appears a promising land for the smartphone industry and Largan has entered the supply chains for lens products in that market, he said.
Several other Taiwanese companies have invested in India in recent years, such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密).
“In the beginning, our products entered the Indian market along with Taiwanese smartphone brands, but now we are working directly with Indian brands,” Lin said.
He declined to elaborate on the Indian market’s contribution to the firm’s revenues, but said the company has no plan to build a new plant there for the time being.
The company’s two rented plants in Taichung are to become operational in the fourth quarter this year, and a newly built plant in Taichung is to start shipping products in the first quarter of next year, Lin said.
Current production capacity is sufficient to meet clients’ demand for this and next quarter, he added.
Shareholders yesterday approved the company’s proposal to distribute a NT$51 cash dividend per share based on last year’s net income of NT$19.43 billion, or earnings per share of NT$144.91. The distribution translates into a payout ratio of 35.19 percent, down from last year’s 39.78 percent.
Lin said Largan prefers to maintain a policy of only distributing cash dividends, because “offering cash dividends lets shareholders have more money to pay their taxes.”
The company might consider issuing stock dividends in the future, if it has a larger share capital.
“We are considering all possibilities to increase share capital,” Lin said, without elaborating.
The company has a share capital of NT$1.34 billion.
Largan’s cash dividend of NT$51 represents a dividend yield of 1.55 percent, based on the stock’s closing price of NT$3,270 yesterday in Taipei trading.
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