Pegatron Corp (和碩), one of Apple Inc’s iPhone assemblers, yesterday said that its revenue for this quarter could increase sharply sequentially and reach its peak for the year, supported by the robust demand for communication and computing products.
“Communications products are expected to be the main growth driver this quarter,” Pegatron chief financial officer Charles Lin (林秋炭) told a teleconference, but declined to give a forecast range for overall revenue growth.
Pegatron’s communications segment includes its iPhone assembly business.
Lin said revenue from its non-computing segment, including communications and consumer electronics products, are expected to climb by between 20 percent and 25 percent from the previous quarter because of peak-season demand.
The non-computing segment contributed 87 percent to the firm’s total revenue of NT$316.19 billion (US$10 billion) last quarter, company data showed.
Lin said that notebook computer shipments are to increase by between 25 percent and 30 percent from last quarter’s 2.35 million units on the back of robust demand.
Pegatron’s clientele includes Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) and Haier Group (海爾).
While demand for notebooks is growing, Lin said motherboard and desktop shipments are expected to decline by between 15 percent and 20 percent sequentially, because of a seasonal slowdown.
Liao said Pegatron is optimistic about the outlook for its 3C business — computers, communications and consumer electronics — next year.
Pegatron expects rising demand for consumer electronics, such as game consoles and virtual and augmented-reality applications.
The company expects to spend US$300 million to US$400 million on capital expenditure next year to buy new manufacturing equipment for its 3C businesses, Liao said.
Yesterday Pegatron reported weaker-than-expected net profit of NT$5.38 billion for last quarter due to a massive foreign-exchange loss of NT$1.7 billion.
Net income plunged 10.5 percent from the NT$6.01 billion it made over the same period last year and missed consensus estimates of NT$6.71 billion.
Due to the exchange losses, Pegatron’s gross margin shrank 1.94 percentage points to 4.8 percent last quarter from a year earlier, while its operating margin fell 1.32 percentage points to 2.5 percent, company data showed.
In a separate release, the company reported revenue of NT$150.99 billion for last month, while cumulative revenue in the first 10 months was NT$948.37 billion, down 2.89 percent from NT$976.58 billion in the same period last year, the company said.
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