Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進), which makes driver ICs for LCD panels, said yesterday its net income grew 80.45 percent to NT$397 million (US$13.8 million) in the first quarter.
The growth comes on a faster price uptick and better gross margin, from NT$220 million, or NT$0.13 per share, a year ago. That represented 27 percent quarterly growth from NT$313 million, or NT$0.19 a share, in the final quarter of last year.
Vanguard supplies about 30 percent of its total shipments to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which is also its largest shareholder with a 37 percent stake.
The chipmaker said its average selling price in US dollars rose 2 percent quarter-on-quarter last quarter instead of remaining unchanged as originally predicted.
Gross margin improved to 18 percent last quarter from 12 percent in the prior quarter, hitting the high end of its estimate of 16 percent to 18 percent.
Shipments are expected to drop this quarter by between 1 percent and 3 percent from 298,000 8-inch wafers last quarter because of customers’ concern over weaker end demand and raw material supply constraints after the March 11 disasters in Japan, the chipmaker said.
Vanguard said its average selling price would be little changed from last quarter and expected gross margin to remain between 17 percent and 19 percent.
It’s shares gained 0.68 percent to finish at NT$14.7 yesterday. TSMC rose 0.27 percent to NT$73.2 after it posted an 8 percent hike in first-quarter net income to NT$36.3 billion on Thursday.
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