ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投股), the world’s biggest chip tester and packager, on Friday said profit skyrocketed last quarter from the previous quarter following the acquisition of rival Siliconware Precision Industries Co Ltd (矽品精密) in April.
Net profit surged 5.46 times to NT$11.46 billion (US$375 million) from NT$2.1 billion in the first quarter and grew 45.99 percent from NT$7.85 billion a year earlier. Earnings per share jumped to NT$2.7 from NT$0.49 the previous quarter and NT$1.93 a year earlier.
“We think the merger has been working smoothly so far,” ASE chief financial officer Joseph Tung (董宏思) told an investors’ conference.
With strong second-quarter earnings, Tung said the company expects the growth momentum would continue into the third and fourth quarters.
The Kaohsiung-based company expects its equipment load to become tighter this quarter as “customer demand is increasing,” while there should be “general strength in all segments,” ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu (吳田玉) said.
ASE’s consolidated revenue grew 30 percent quarterly and 28 percent year-on-year to NT$84.5 billion last quarter. Gross margin improved by 0.2 percentage points from the previous quarter to 16.2 percent on a consolidated basis, but decreased by 2.2 percentage points from a year earlier, a financial statement showed.
For this quarter, the company did not offer revenue growth guidance on its core businesses — including IC packaging and assembly testing — but said the segments would see 3 to 4 percent quarterly growth in capacity, while gross margin would climb to the same level seen in the third quarter of last year, or 25 percent, from 19.89 percent last quarter.
Revenue of the company’s electronics manufacturing service business — including system-in-package (SiP) sales — this quarter is predicted to reach the level registered in the fourth quarter last year, or NT$42.28 billion, compared with NT$30.48 billion last quarter, the company said.
SiP business is seen a major growth driver for ASE, with Apple Inc likely the first client of its SiP services.
“In terms of SiP business, we are making quite a lot of progress this year in terms of expanding the customer base, as well as taking on new projects,” Tung said.
Overall, SiP business is to contribute 15 percent to ASE’s revenue this year, little changed from last year, Tung said.
The company is projected to see meaningful progress in its SiP business, as it expects to ramp up new products from new clients, Wu said.
The company will continue development of high-end technologies, including fan-out wafer-level package technology and 2.5D IC package technology, to further improve its profitability, he said.
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