Pegatron Corp (和碩) yesterday forecast revenue would jump by 50 percent in the second half of this year from the first half’s NT$481.03 billion (US$15.36 billion), after posting better-than-expected earnings for last quarter.
“The revenue split for the first and second halves of the year would be 40-60, similar to last year’s pattern,” Pegatron vice chairman Jason Cheng (程建中) said on the sidelines of an investors’ conference.
While Pegatron has made preparations for the upcoming peak season with more equipment, materials and workers, the company is monitoring consumer demand in the aftermath of Britain’s vote to leave the EU, chief financial officer Charles Lin (林秋炭) said.
“Volatile currency-exchange rates in emerging markets might pose uncertainty for the company’s operations in the remainder of this year,” Lin said.
Revenue from the company’s non-computing business is to expand by between 25 and 30 percent this quarter from a quarter earlier, driven by the communications and consumer electronics segments.
Non-computing business, including iPhone assembly for Apple Inc, contributed 84 percent of Pegatron’s NT$224.65 billion in revenue last quarter.
Shipments of notebook computers are expected to grow by between 5 and 10 percent this quarter from the previous quarter, softer than the peak season last year, Lin said.
Shipments of motherboard and desktops would decline by between 10 and 15 percent this quarter from the April-to-June period, he said.
As Apple is pressuring its supply chain on prices, “what we could do is to improve our internal management to lower costs, while client requests are increasing,” Pegatron chief executive officer S.J. Liao (廖賜政) said.
In the second quarter, Pegatron’s net income was NT$3.99 billion, or NT$1.55 per share, beating the market’s consensus estimate of NT$3.14 billion, or NT$1.21 per share, thanks to better-than-expected demand for communications and consumer electronics products.
Last quarter’s net profit represented a 14.3 percent decline from last year’s NT$4.65 billion and a 2.9 percent fall from the prior quarter’s NT$4.1 billion.
Gross margin increased to 7.1 percent last quarter from last year’s 6.38 percent and the previous quarter’s 5.78 percent, while operating margin rose to 3.9 percent from 2.63 percent last year and 2.34 percent the prior quarter.
Gross margin and operating margin were at the highest levels in the company’s history, data showed.
Pegatron booked foreign-exchange losses of NT$1.42 billion last quarter, due to the sharp depreciation of the yuan against the US dollar, with the company making most of its products in China.
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