Legend Holdings Ltd's profit for the fiscal first quarter beat expectations by almost a half as China's biggest personal computer maker sold more PCs and reduced its costs for making them. The stock soared 6 percent.
Net income in the quarter ended in June rose to HK$251 million (US$33 million), or HK$0.033 a share, beating the average estimate of HK$171 million in a Bloomberg survey. The company revised profit for the year-earlier period by three-quarters down to HK$45.8 million, or HK$0.061, because of a change in Hong Kong accounting laws.
The result will help allay investor concern that Legend, which has 33 percent of the world's No. 3 computer market, would have to surrender profits to maintain its market share.
Dell Computer Corp, the world's largest PC maker, has less than 4 percent of the China market and was the only overseas company that's been able to increase its share this year.
"The figures look good," said Tim Leung, who manages C$550 million (US$356 million) in Asian stocks outside Japan and is considering buying the stock. "They have been quite successful in maintaining market share and investors are relieved to see them confirm this with the results." Sales rose to HK$6.09 billion from HK$5.85 billion.
Legend said it sold 651,000 PCs, many of them with advanced technologies such as liquid crystal display monitors and Intel Corp's latest Pentium4 processor, as China's computer market grew by 28 percent during the quarter.
"The company is definitely improving profitability," said Tim Ariowitsch, an analyst with Goldman Sachs Asia Llc.
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