Uni-President Enterprises Corp (統一企業), the nation’s largest food-and-beverage conglomerate, last week reported stronger-than-expected earnings for the first quarter on contributions from subsidiaries and lower taxes.
Consolidated net profit was NT$7.82 billion (US$252.6 million) last quarter, up 19.8 percent from a year earlier. Net profit attributable to the parent company increased 23.08 percent to NT$5.28 billion, with earnings per share of NT$0.93, the highest for the period in the company’s history.
Consolidated revenue rose just 3.35 percent year-on-year to NT$107.8 billion in the first quarter, but operating profit increased 7.16 percent to NT$7.52 billion, aided by improving gross margin that rose from 33.97 percent to 34.42 percent over the period.
Tainan-based Uni-President’s major subsidiaries include Taiwan’s President Chain Store Corp (PCSC, 統一超商) and Ton Yi Industrial Corp (統一實業), as well as the Chinese unit, Uni-President China Holdings Ltd (UPC, 統一中國控股).
The earnings contribution from President Chain Store increased by 15 percent to NT$2.9 billion on lower taxes, and that from Uni-President China expanded by 48 percent to 380.5 million yuan (US$55.76 million) on the back of favorable raw material costs and a lucrative product mix, while Ton Yi saw profit increase by 18 percent annually to NT$128 million on foreign exchange gains, company data showed.
President Chain Store reported flat single-store sales (SSS) growth in the first quarter, but Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co (元大投顧) said the unit could see better SSS growth in the second half of this year, supported by an e-commerce recovery and solid sales from fresh food and coffee.
Uni-President China is predicted to see further improvement in gross margin throughout this year on favorable raw material costs and lower value-added taxes, Yuanta said in a note on Thursday.
As Uni-President’s first-quarter profit was mainly driven by Uni-President China, while contribution from other Taiwanese units appear moderate, the company would need to focus on stabilizing its overall operations to return to sustainable growth, Capital Investment Management Corp (群益投顧) said in a separate note on Thursday.
INVENTORY DOUBLED: Key parts have backed up in warehouses, halting notebook production, as Acer’s CEO said that a gradual reopening would not solve the problem PC vendor Acer Inc (宏碁) yesterday said that lockdowns in China to control COVID-19 upended key component supply and disrupted PC production, although chip shortages have been improving. While chip supply constraints largely eased in the first quarter, the company faces uneven supplies of key components due to COVID-19 restrictions in China, Acer chairman and CEO Jason Chen (陳俊聖) told an online news conference. “Semiconductor shortage was the biggest problem in the first half of last year,” Chen said. “Now, we are beset by a supply chain issue caused by China's lockdowns.” With key components unable to be delivered and backing up in
MORE THAN BUZZ: The chip designer said it has received numerous orders from automakers to supply 5G modem chips, as it works to expand beyond smartphones MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday said it would ship the first 5G chips for vehicles to customers in the Asia-Pacific region by the end of the year, as it moves to expand the reach of its 5G chips beyond smartphones. The Hsinchu-based chip designer said it has been developing 5G chips for connected vehicles over the past few years, targeting applications such as telematics and in-vehicle information systems. “We are seeing demand for 5G technology from numerous makers of connected cars, including electric vehicle makers. We have obtained numerous orders from automakers to supply 5G modem chips with highly integrated features,” J.C. Hsu
E Ink Holdings Inc (元太科技) yesterday said it would further expand capacity to cope with robust demand for e-paper displays used in e-readers, e-notes and electronic shelf labels, as the COVID-19 pandemic and rising inflation have not dampened consumer demand. Although rising inflation is weakening companies’ purchasing power, E Ink said that its customers have not scaled down orders for e-paper displays used in e-readers. “Reading is still the most affordable leisure activity that people have,” E Ink CEO Johnson Lee (李政昊) told an online investors’ conference in Taipei. As e-books are less expensive than paper books, “we have so far not seen
Covestro Taiwan Ltd (台灣科思創) yesterday launched a new research and development center that is to specialize in resin synthesis and fiberoptic coating after its parent company, Covestro AG, acquired a resins business from Royal DSM, it said. The German company in September 2020 agreed to buy the resins and functional materials business from Royal DSM for about 1.61 billion euros (US$1.69 billion), corporate data showed. The Dutch company’s local units, such as Covestro Resins (ROA) Ltd (帝昇) and Covestro Resins (Taiwan) Ltd (新力美), are next month to be integrated into Covestro Taiwan Ltd, with their employees continuing resins development, Covestro Taiwan said. The
RSS