Merrill Lynch Taiwan yesterday raised the estimated earnings for Asustek Computer Co (華碩電腦), in light of the company's restructuring in the past year and a half, the US investment bank said.
"Successful brand repositioning, cost-competitive lines, component affiliates in China and faster product diversification should help Asustek stand out against other motherboard makers and notebook ODMs [original design manufacturers]," Merrill Lynch said in a report released yesterday.
The report upgraded the estimated earnings per share (EPS) for Asustek to NT$7 for this year, with the share price valued at NT$100 based on a price-earnings ratio of 14, Merrill Lynch said.
Asustek shares stayed unchanged at NT$80.5 on the TAIEX yesterday.
Merrill Lynch also adjusted the net profit forecast for the company to around NT$16 billion this year, 38 percent up from last year, on expected consolidated revenue of NT$253 billion this year, 29 percent up from a year ago.
Asustek's branded products, which usually enjoy a high margin of up to 25 percent, could make up 60 percent of its annual revenue this year from 40 percent last year, the report said.
Laptops, the major driver of growth, are expected to surpass motherboards to be the largest division of Asustek's product mix this year, taking 32 percent of annual sales from 29 percent last year.
Laptop shipments are estimated to grow from 1.7 million units to 3 million units this year, including 1.3 million branded laptops, driven by strong growth for products bearing own names and full-year shipment of around 1.7 million to Apple Inc.
Growth momentum would continue next year to hit 3.9 million units, led by the company's own-brand notebooks, the report predicted.
Motherboard shipments would grow to over 40 million units this year from 29.5 million units last year, bolstered by strong momentum from branded products, and would grab 30 percent of global market share this year.
Sales of other products, like optical disk drives and broadband devices, are expected to nearly double, accounting for between 16 percent and 21 percent of sales this year, according to Merrill Lynch.
Despite the rosy forecast, the company was warned of carefully handling conflict of interest between its own brand and contracted clients in the notebook business and competition from the world's No.2 motherboard maker, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (
Asustek is scheduled to roll out its own-brand handsets next month, branded liquid-crystal-display (LCD) monitors in the third quarter and LCD TV next year, the company's global brand marketing manager Sunny Han (
TECH RACE: The Chinese firm showed off its new Mate XT hours after the latest iPhone launch, but its price tag and limited supply could be drawbacks China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday unveiled the world’s first tri-foldable phone, as it seeks to expand its lead in the world’s biggest smartphone market and steal the spotlight from Apple Inc hours after it debuted a new iPhone. The Chinese tech giant showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways like an accordion screen door, during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. The Mate XT comes in red and black and has a 10.2-inch display screen. At 3.6mm thick, it is the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone, Huawei said. The company’s Web site showed that it has garnered more than
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and Episil Technologies Inc (漢磊) yesterday announced plans to jointly build an 8-inch fab to produce silicon carbide (SiC) chips through an equity acquisition deal. SiC chips offer higher efficiency and lower energy loss than pure silicon chips, and they are able to operate at higher temperatures. They have become crucial to the development of electric vehicles, artificial intelligence data centers, green energy storage and industrial devices. Vanguard, a contract chipmaker focused on making power management chips and driver ICs for displays, is to acquire a 13 percent stake in Episil for NT$2.48 billion (US$77.1 million).
RSS