LCD panel maker HannStar Display Corp (瀚宇彩晶) yesterday said net profit last quarter more than halved from a year earlier as demand for handset panels dwindled and prices declined.
Net profit tumbled to NT$873 million (US$29.35 million) in the first three months of this year, compared with net profit of NT$1.83 billion in the same period last year, the company said in a statement.
That translated into earnings per share of NT$0.27, down from NT$0.57.
Blended average selling prices plummeted 20 percent to US$40, from US$50 a year earlier, the statement said.
However, HannStar last quarter delivered an earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization margin of 31 percent, beating bigger rivals Innolux Corp’s (群創) 19.5 percent and AU Optronics Corp’s (友達光電) 16 percent.
Shipments of small-to-mid-size panels last quarter shrank 6.84 percent to 109 million units, compared with 117 million a year earlier, the company said.
Shipments of large panels more than doubled to 600,000 units from 270,000 units.
Mobile phone panels were the company’s biggest revenue source, making up 61 percent of NT$4.44 billion in revenue last quarter, down from 69 percent a year earlier.
Revenue last quarter sank 28.62 percent from NT$6.22 billion a year earlier.
On a quarterly basis, revenue contracted about 28 percent from NT$6.15 billion. Net profit plunged 48 percent from about NT$1.67 billion, or NT$0.51 per share, in the fourth quarter of last year.
Separately, LCD panel maker Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (中華映管) posted a loss of NT$1.06 billion for last quarter, compared with a loss of NT$97.87 million in the fourth quarter of last year.
The company blamed the fall on weak demand for mobile phone panels and price declines.
Gross margin last quarter worsened to minus-0.88 percent from 8.64 percent in the previous quarter and 31.99 percent a year earlier.
Last quarter was the second unprofitable quarter for Chungwa Picture. In the first quarter of last year, the company made NT$1.7 billion in net profit, or NT$0.26 per share.
The company said panel prices are stabilizing, which would help boost this quarter’s revenue.
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