Fitipower Integrated Technology Inc (天鈺科技), Hon Hai Precision Industry Co’s (鴻海精密) driver IC design arm, expects revenue to hit another record-high this year, fueled by growing demand for display driver ICs used in ultra-high-definition TVs and gaming notebook computers.
In the first eight months of this year, Fitipower’s revenue jumped 22.35 percent to NT$5.71 billion (US$185.43 million), compared with NT$4.67 billion in the same period last year, it said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
“Following such growth pace, Fitipower should enjoy good [revenue] growth this year,” chairman Young Lin (林永杰) told an investors’ conference in Taipei yesterday.
Fitipower is scheduled to debut on the Taiwan Stock Exchange in the middle of next month at the earliest.
“We are growing together with the [Hon Hai Technology] group (鴻海科技集團), which is expanding its business scope to 5G and [ultra-high-definition] 8K [TV panels] as well as Internet of Things,” Lin said.
Fitipower last year made NT$7.17 billion in revenue, of which 87 percent came from display driver ICs used in flat panels for TVs and handsets.
The company counts Hon Hai’s display subsidiaries Sharp Corp and Innolux Corp (群創) and China’s BOE Technology Group (京東方) among its clients.
Power management ICs accounted for the remaining 13 percent of its revenue, with a broad customer base that includes Huawei Technologies Co (華為), Dell Technologies Inc and HP Inc, Fitipower said.
The company is planning to tap into the burgeoning business of a new-generation single chip that integrates a driver and a controller, known in the industry as a touch controller with display driver integration (TDDI).
The company plans to ship its new TDDI products for customer qualification by the end of this year, Lin said, taking on the nation’s top two players — Novatek Microelectronics Corp (聯詠科技) and FocalTech Systems Co (敦泰電子).
Fitipower manufactures a new generation of TDDI, which is only half the size of those made by existing suppliers and is more cost-efficient, he said.
The company also has strong patent coverage to protect its technologies and to avoid legal disputes, Lin said, in an apparent reference to the legal battle between Novatek and FocalTech over patent infringement allegations.
Fitipower owns 89 patents related to display driver ICs and power management ICs, he said.
Commenting on the escalating trade war between the US and China, Lin said the company does not see any direct impact from the dispute, as only a small portion of its ICs are exported to the US via China.
Besides, most consumer electronics are exempted from US President Donald Trump’s new US$200 billion tariff list, he said.
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