TPK Holding Co Ltd (宸鴻), which supplies touch modules for Apple Inc’s smartwatches and iPads, yesterday reported profits for last quarter, the fourth consecutive profitable quarter, as customers’ robust demand for tablet panel modules offset weakness in smartphone demand.
TPK’s revenue last quarter rose 4.6 percent quarter-on-quarter to NT$22.41 billion (US$741.4 million), thanks to 19 percent quarterly growth in shipments of touch panel modules for tablets, the company said.
The result means the company is on track to hit its target of remaining profitable throughout the year, as the second quarter is usually the most challenging, chief executive Michael Chung (鍾依華) told an investors’ teleconference from Taipei.
Photo: Chen Mei-ing, Taipei Times
“As more new products from our customers are set to hit the market in the third and fourth quarters, we believe the company will also reach the goal of posting annual revenue growth in each quarter of the second half this year,” Chung said.
“The company’s profits also rose quarter-on-quarter in the first half, given satisfying yield rates and better factory utilization,” he added.
Net profit improved to NT$327 million in the three-month period ending June 30, compared with a loss of NT$2.5 billion in the same period last year, when TPK failed to improve yield rates on touch panels used in wearable devices to a profitable level.
On a quarterly basis, net profit plunged 47 percent from NT$616 million when excluding massive asset disposal gains of NT$820 million.
Gross margin improved to 6.7 percent, compared with 5.6 percent a quarter earlier and minus 9.3 percent a year earlier.
TPK expects growth momentum to accelerate this quarter as the effect of new product launches by major customers would be amplified in the upcoming peak season.
“We are seeing customers boost shipments in the second half after a small volume of new devices reached the stores at the end of the second quarter,” chief financial officer Freddie Liu (劉詩亮) said.
“We believe the 25 percent to 30 percent quarterly growth forecast by some analysts should be achievable in the third quarter,” he added.
The company’s revenue of NT$9.58 billion for last month is a good indicator of a revenue uptrend, given that the figure represented month-on-month growth of 8.9 percent from NT$8.8 billion, Liu said.
TPK said it is on track to form a strategic partnership with Chinese touchpanel maker O-film Tech Co (歐菲光) via cross-shareholding, seeking to ease investors’ concern that China’s curbs on capital outflows could weigh on their cooperaton.
In March, TPK’s board approved the sale of a 5.46 percent stake to O-film for NT$1.8 billion.
The company also plans to invest as much as NT$900 million in purchasing O-film shares at 40.34 yuan per share.
Despite the delay in share purchases, TPK said it would continue to push for the creation of a joint venture as planned.
The companies are to sign an agreement within a month to facilitate the formation of the joint venture in China, in pursuit of business opportunities in touch modules used in mobile phones, tablets and cars, Liu said.
“The companies’ intent to provide one-stop-shop solutions for customers through the strategic partnerships is intact,” Liu said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six