Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (CPT, 中華映管) yesterday said it swung into profit last year after nine consecutive years of losses, as product mix improvement helped lift its gross margin.
Net profit reached NT$3.57 billion (US$122.42 million), with earnings per share of NT$0.46, the company said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
That compared with a net loss of NT$895 million, or losses per share of NT$0.27, in 2016.
Gross margin improved by about 3 percentage points to 18.85 percent and revenue grew 5 percent to NT$34.74 billion, the company said.
However, it reported a net loss per share of NT$0.02 in the final quarter of last year, mainly due to asset impairments of NT$819.84 million.
The company said it would continue efforts to diversify its product portfolio toward higher-margin displays used in cars and industrial devices, adding that it expects shipments of panels used in cars to expand to 14 million units this year, compared with 12 million units last year.
The combined revenue contribution of panels for cars and industrial devices is forecast to increase to 45 percent this year, from between 35 percent and 40 percent last year, it said.
Shareholders are scheduled to sign off on the financial results at an annual general meeting on June 22.
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