Mobile phone camera lens supplier Largan Precision Co (大立光) yesterday said its revenue might increase this quarter from a year earlier, bolstered by the increasing adoption of dual cameras in smartphones.
“Revenue for this month and next could outpace that of the same period last year due to the rising demand for dual cameras,” Largan chief executive officer Adam Lin (林恩平) told a teleconference, without offering a range of estimated growth.
He added that the company’s plants would continue to run at full capacity this quarter.
The construction of a new plant in Taichung is scheduled to be completed next quarter and could become operational in the third quarter at the earliest, helping to ease a capacity constraint, he said.
While waiting for the new plant, the company is working on improving production yields and efficiency, Lin said.
Lin said he is not satisfied with the production yields for some projects, but added that he believed they would improve this quarter, which should benefit the firm’s gross margin.
Largan’s performance this year will largely depend on the adoption rate of dual cameras in the global smartphone industry and the supply of key components for the product, he said.
Unlike producing single-camera lenses, the assembly of dual cameras requires sensors, actuators and lenses, Lin said, adding that a shortage in any of the key components would affect production.
The company yesterday reported a record net profit of NT$8.44 billion (US$265.58 million), or NT$62.99 per share, for last quarter, up 25.78 percent from NT$6.71 billion a year ago and 24.85 percent from the previous quarter’s NT$6.96 billion.
Gross margin expanded by 10.76 percentage points from a year ago and 2.7 percentage points from the previous quarter to a historic high of 70.66 percent last quarter, while operating margin also set a record of 60.9 percent.
A Largan investor relations official attributed the gross margin improvement to a better product portfolio, larger revenue scale, improving yields and a weaker currency exchange rate.
Despite last quarter’s robust performance, the company’s full-year net profit dropped 6 percent annually to NT$22.72 billion, or NT$169.4 per share, compared with NT$24.15 billion, or NT$180.08 per share, the previous year.
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