Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) yesterday reported slight annual growth in net income for last quarter, supported primarily by better-than-expected notebook shipments during the electronics industry’s peak season.
Net profit inched up 0.88 percent to NT$4.54 billion (US$135.84 million) last quarter, the company said. That represented a quarterly growth of 7.83 percent.
“Last quarter’s net income growth was mainly because of the better-than-expected notebook PC shipments,” chief financial officer Nick Wu (吳長榮) told the Taipei Times.
The PC vendor shipped 5.4 million notebooks during the October-to-December quarter, beating its estimate of 5.2 million units, Asustek said.
The quarterly results brought the company’s net profit for the full year to NT$17.09 billion, down 12.22 percent from NT$19.47 billion in 2014, the company’s filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange showed.
Asustek attributed the decline to currency exchange losses and lower investment income compared with the previous year.
Brand revenues last year were flattish at NT$436.52 billion compared with NT$436.26 billion in 2014, it said.
Asustek also reported that annual revenue rose 0.9 percent to NT$35.29 billion last month. That represented a sequential decline of 7.08 percent.
The company is to host an investors’ conference tomorrow to provide its quarterly guidance for this quarter.
In related news, Taiwanese contract computer makers Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), Inventec Corp (英業達), Wistron Corp (緯創), Compal Electronics Co (仁寶) and Pegatron Corp (和碩) yesterday all reported double-digit percentage declines in revenue last month due to PC industry headwinds and a seasonal slowdown.
Quanta’s revenue plunged 14.34 percent annually and 38.03 percent monthly to NT$60.07 billion last month, its filing showed.
“Due to early pull-in shipment requests in December and seasonality, Quanta’s notebook shipments plummeted more than 40 percent to 2.3 million units last month from the 4 million notebooks it shipped in a month ago,” an investor relations officer said by telephone.
Wistron’s revenue fell 16.45 percent year-on-year and 29.33 percent month-on-month to NT$41.21 billion last month, while Compal’s dropped 18.41 percent annually and 32.57 percent monthly to NT$56.08 billion last month, citing slow season and clouded visibility of the PC industry.
Pegatron attributed its 14.08 percent annual decline in revenue to NT$101.43 billion last month to a higher base compared with the same period last year.
The slow season also weighed on Pegatron’s sales last month, the company said.
Inventec’s sales shrank 21.9 percent to NT$30.1 billion last month from a month earlier, but the firm’s monthly sales grew 0.78 percent from a year earlier.
“The slight annual increase in revenue was fueled by the robust demand from handheld devices and solar products, while PC shipments last month contracted from a month earlier due to seasonality,” its investor relations officer said.
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