TV and online retailer Momo.com Inc (富邦媒體) yesterday gave a positive business outlook for the year, saying that the company’s investments in overseas joint ventures and logistics systems are expected to bear fruit.
“We expect a higher profit contribution from overseas business this year,” company president Lin Chi-feng (林啟峰) told a news conference in Taipei.
Lin said that profit from the company’s overseas joint ventures is expected to make up 10 percent of its total profits this year, in comparison with last year’s 6 percent.
Momo.com has a 20 percent stake in Global Home Shopping Co Ltd, a Chinese TV shopping company with more than 130 million customers.
Lin said that the joint venture is expected to generate sales of NT$10 billion (US$322.8 million) this year on the back of rapid sales growth in China’s TV shopping market.
Momo.com also has a 35 percent stake in TVD Shopping Co Ltd, a Thailand-based joint venture with multi-channel marketing company TV Direct.
TVD Shopping is seeking approval of its initial public offering in Thailand and is likely to be listed by the end of this year, Lin said.
Commenting on new joint ventures, Lin said that Momo.com’s partnership with Malaysia-based Pavilion Trading Enterprise Sdn Bhd is to begin operations under the Momo brand in the third quarter.
The company said it plans to spend NT$180 million to acquire a 45 percent stake of the joint venture, aiming to increase its presence in the Malaysian market.
“Malaysia is not yet a saturated [e-commerce] market and we have only two major competitors there,” Lin told reporters, declining to give a near-term target.
Eyeing the growing e-commerce market in Southeast Asia, the company is also in talks with several companies from the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia.
Alongside the quick expansion of its overseas business, the company said it expects its new logistics center to improve efficiency and reduce labor costs. Its automated logistics center in Taoyuan is set to start operations in the third quarter, the company said.
Last year, the company reported a net profit of NT$1.18 billion, a 11.6 percent increase from the previous year’s NT$1.06 billion, according to the company’s filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
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