Poya Co (寶雅國際) on Tuesday reported third-quarter results which were in line with market expectations.
Net income rose 35.7 percent to NT$279 million (US$8.5 million), or NT$2.93 per share, from the previous quarter, while sales grew 7.3 percent quarter-on-quarter to NT$2.76 billion.
Poya, which as of the end of last quarter operates 122 stores selling cosmetics and beauty products, personal goods, lingerie, socks and household groceries, has announced plans to expand to 131 stores before the end of this year.
The retailer has also remodeled 12 stores into new-generation outlets in the past quarter, while cutting the number of older-format stores to 11, or 9 percent of total stores.
The company is planning to roll out 27 additional stores next year, which analysts expect will continue to propel sales growth this year and through 2017.
Analysts are also positive on the company’s new central warehouse facilities, which are expected to improve profit margins and help contain operating costs.
Poya shares gained 1.09 percent to NT$370 in Taipei trading yesterday.
Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co (元大投顧) issued a “buy” rating for Poya shares, while Malaysia-based CIMB Securities Ltd advised investors to “hold.”
“Although the stock is not cheap ... we deem the company deserving of a premium, given its niche competitive position in the domestic retail market, high dividend payout ratio and its capable management team,” Yuanta analyst Livia Wu (吳靚芙) said in a client note.
CIMB Securities Ltd analyst Jack Lin (林泓彥) said that Poya’s 0.3 percent quarter-on-quarter decline in single-store-sales-growth (SSSG) last quarter was disappointing, and has slashed his SSSG forecast for this year, from 5.2 percent to 3.6 percent.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
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
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
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