Pneumatic components supplier Airtac International Group (亞德客) yesterday posted an unaudited net profit of NT$3.3 billion (US$112.7 million) for the whole of last year, a 63 percent jump from NT$2.03 billion a year earlier, supported by rising customer demand.
Earnings per share were NT$18.07, up from NT$10.72 in 2016, a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange showed.
Sales totaled NT$13.72 billion, a 29 percent year-on-year increase from NT$10.62 billion, with operating income rising 52 percent from NT$2.72 billion to NT$4.14 billion, the filing showed.
The company attributed the strong performance primarily to growing customer demand for automated equipment amid an economic recovery in China.
Revenue generated from Chinese clients contributed nearly 90 percent of total sales, company data showed.
Airtac, which has paid-in capital of NT$1.89 billion, in July last year raised NT$3 billion through the issuance of 10 million new shares.
The company said at the time that it would use the funds to expand capacity.
The firm, incorporated in the Cayman Islands, plans to secure a NT$5 billion syndicated loan from local banks this quarter to finance capacity expansion at its plants in Tainan’s Tree Valley Park (樹谷園區) and China’s Zhejiang Province, the Chinese-language Commercial Times reported this week.
Airtac invested NT$5 billion in a first-phase expansion of the Tainan plant, including acquiring land and buildings, and it last month allocated another NT$1.1 billion for the second phase, forecasting that the work would be completed by the end of this year at the earliest.
The Tainan plant will likely break even this year with an expected whole-year revenue of NT$3 billion, Jih Sun Securities Investment Consulting Co (日盛投顧) said in a note on Dec. 21 last year.
Jih Sun also forecast that Airtac’s net profit would increase 22.5 percent year-on-year to nearly NT$3.99 billion this year, or earnings per share of NT$21.1.
Airtac shares yesterday gained 10 percent to NT$473 in Taipei trading.
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