HTC Corp (宏達電) chairwoman and chief executive officer Cher Wang (王雪紅) yesterday vowed that the smartphone company would deliver good financial results next year, after posting consecutive losses over the past two years.
“I am really sorry that the company failed to be profitable. I have taken over the position of chief executive officer for two years now, and I believe that HTC can deliver satisfactory results for shareholders in the third year [next year],” Wang said at the company’s annual general meeting in Taoyuan.
Wang made the remarks in response to questions by more than 15 shareholders on when HTC could swing back into black and distribute dividends.
Photo: Wang I-hung, Taipei Times
“All we care about is HTC’s profitability and stock price performance. How much longer do we have to wait? And what are your strategies for operations to pick up?” asked an 80-year-old shareholder, who said he used his pension to buy 5,000 HTC shares at more than NT$800 per share in 2012.
HTC shares closed at NT$68.6 in Taipei trading yesterday, up 0.59 percent from the previous session.
The company posted net losses of NT$15.53 billion (US$513.44 million at the current exchange rate) in 2015 and NT$10.56 billion last year.
In the first quarter of this year, it posted net losses of NT$2.03 billion, the eighth straight unprofitable quarter, according to its filings with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
HTC’s priority is to lower its operating costs, such as marketing expense for new smartphones, HTC president of smartphone and connected devices business Chang Chia-lin (張嘉臨) said.
Operating expenses dropped 33.33 percent to NT$24 billion last year from NT$36 billion a year earlier, Chang said, adding that the company aims to keep reducing the costs this year.
“Instead of hiring advertising firms to promote HTC products, we are now doing advertising on our own,” Chang said.
The marketing expense for the latest flagship HTC U11 was only a “small portion” of that spent on the HTC M9 in 2015, he said.
The company has also decided to introduce only three to four high-end handsets this year and beyond to conserve resources on research and development (R&D) and marketing, Chang said.
It is also because HTC has realized that large shipments of low and mid-end smartphones are not helpful to its finances, he said.
“High-priced flagship smartphones is HTC’s chance to increase profitability,” he added.
HTC will allocate its R&D resources on technologies and products related to 5G mobile and wireless communication network, such as virtual reality (VR), to prepare ahead of the launch of 5G services in 2020, he said.
HTC remains optimistic that its VR business would become its main growth catalyst over the long term, Wang said, adding that the company invested NT$3 billion in the segment last year and its Vive headset is regarded as the best product in the global VR market.
“HTC Vive secured the largest market share of the global VR industry by revenue last year. We aim to keep our leading position by investing in VR software and hardware,” Wang said, declining to disclose its VR headset revenue and shipments.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
Hong Kong authorities ramped up sales of the local dollar as the greenback’s slide threatened the foreign-exchange peg. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) sold a record HK$60.5 billion (US$7.8 billion) of the city’s currency, according to an alert sent on its Bloomberg page yesterday in Asia, after it tested the upper end of its trading band. That added to the HK$56.1 billion of sales versus the greenback since Friday. The rapid intervention signals efforts from the city’s authorities to limit the local currency’s moves within its HK$7.75 to HK$7.85 per US dollar trading band. Heavy sales of the local dollar by
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
An Indonesian animated movie is smashing regional box office records and could be set for wider success as it prepares to open beyond the Southeast Asian archipelago’s silver screens. Jumbo — a film based on the adventures of main character, Don, a large orphaned Indonesian boy facing bullying at school — last month became the highest-grossing Southeast Asian animated film, raking in more than US$8 million. Released at the end of March to coincide with the Eid holidays after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, the movie has hit 8 million ticket sales, the third-highest in Indonesian cinema history, Film
RSS