Acer Inc’s (宏碁) earnings took a dive last quarter, mainly due to foreign-exchange losses, the firm said yesterday.
The PC company reported net income of NT$46 million (US$1.41 million), down 73.41 percent from last year’s NT$173 million and 80.59 percent from the prior quarter’s NT$237 million, the company said.
Earnings per share were NT$0.02, compared with last year’s NT$0.06 and the previous quarter’s NT$0.08 per share, it said.
In the first quarter, the company booked nearly NT$900 million in foreign-exchange losses, derived from the New Taiwan dollar’s appreciation and the euro’s depreciation against the US dollar.
Consolidated sales of NT$56.32 billion last quarter marked the lowest level since the second quarter of 2006 amid slowing PC shipments.
The quarter also represented the company’s ninth consecutive profitable quarter, as operating income improved to NT$866 million.
The figure beat Credit Suisse’s estimate of an operating loss of NT$217 million and compared with operating income of NT$304 million a year earlier and NT$449 million in the prior quarter.
That led Acer to post an operating margin of 1.53 percent for the quarter, up 1.08 percentage points from last year’s 0.45 percent and 0.87 percentage points from the previous quarter’s 0.66 percent. The number also marked the highest since the second quarter of 2011.
The company’s gross margin reached 11.8 percent, the highest since the third quarter in 2000, the company said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange, citing better product mix and inventory management.
In related news, the company’s board has approved Acer Taiwan operations president Towny Huang’s (黃鐘鋒) retirement application, effective from July 1.
Huang, who has led operations in Taiwan since 2014, has worked for Acer for more than 30 years.
Andrew Hou (侯知遠), president of Acer Pan-Asia Pacific, is to double as president for Acer’s operations in Taiwan, the company said.
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