Quanta shares limit-up on speculation over president

SPARKING TRADE： A widely read story that Michael Wang offered to resign after opposing the idea of a merger with Hon Hai Precision Industry created a buzz

By Jason Tan  /  STAFF REPORTER

Tue, Jul 10, 2007 - Page 11

Shares of Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦), the world's top contract notebook maker, rose by the daily limit yesterday as speculation swirled that the company president is leaving over opposition to a merger plan.

The stock price of Quanta closed up by 7 percent to NT$58.8 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, better than the benchmark TAIEX index's 1.94 percent gain.

Local news wire Central New Agency reported yesterday that Quanta president Michael Wang (王震華) offered to resign because he opposed the idea of combining Quanta with Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) -- the nation's biggest electronics component supplier -- speculation that has been widely circulated for a long time. Both companies denied the report.

Dismissing the report, a Quanta public relations official yesterday said that Wang would be on leave for almost two months ending Aug. 25.

She declined to reveal the reasons for Wang's long vacation.

"He will still step into the office occasionally, and settle some office work via phone or e-mail," she said.

Separately, the notebook computer maker confirmed that it has pushed back the shipments of low-cost PCs from July to October, following requests by One Laptop per Child, a non-profit organization, to improve the specification of the laptops.

Yesterday, the Chinese-language Commercial Times said shipments of these PCs would likely fall below one million units this year, from an earlier estimate of 3 million units.

Quanta yesterday posted a 65 percent increase in June sales to NT$64 billion (US$1.9 billion) from NT$38.67 billion a year earlier.

The company has cumulative revenues of NT$297.1 billion in the first six months, up approximate 44 percent from NT$205.91 billion a year ago.