MStar Semiconductor Inc (晨星半導體) yesterday said first-quarter net profit expanded at a 7.5 percent annual rate to NT$1.54 billion (US$52.4 million), helped by growing demand from its TV chip customers, bucking a downtrend in the seasonally slow period.
As the seasonal factor would continue to weigh on the company’s business this quarter, revenues would likely be flat or grow up to 6 percent to between US$300 million and US$318 million, from last quarter’s US$300 million, Wayne Liang (梁公偉), chairman of the world’s top supplier of chips for LCD TVs, told investors.
“The second quarter will be a seasonally slow quarter, with TV chip shipment to being flat, or growing slightly,” Liang said.
TVs chips contributed about 70 percent to the company’s total revenue last quarter, with direct clients from Taiwan, China and South Korea.
Liang’s revenue growth forecast fell short of an 11 percent quarterly growth estimated by Credit Suisse’s Randy Abrams.
Gross margin would contract slightly to between 40 and 42 percent this quarter from 42.5 percent in the January-March period, Liang said, matching Abrams’ forecast.
In the first quarter, net profit increased to NT$1.54 billion, or NT$2.91 a share, compared with NT$1.43 billion, or NT$2.7 a share, in the corresponding period last year, making the first quarter the strongest first quarter in MStar’s history, the company said.
The figure was down 7.5 percent from the fourth quarter’s NT$1.66 billion, or NT$3.13 per share.
This quarter, handset chips would grow at a 20 percent quarterly rate after clients launch mobile phones equipped with its new feature phone chips, which would help customers save on cost, Liang said.
Growth in higher-margin chips for conditional access set-top boxes would offset a decline in chips for unencrypted set-top boxes, he added.
Handset chips made up 15 percent of MStar’s overall revenue last quarter and chips for set-top boxes accounted for more than 5 percent, the chipmaker said.
The third quarter looked like a more exciting period for MStar as shipments of its new chips for smart TVs would grow significantly and customers would start mass production of its first smartphone chips supporting 3G and EDGE technologies by then, according to the company.
MStar has more than 10 clients using its new smartphone chips.
Liang said the company maintained its target of seizing 15 percent share of the world’s feature phone market.
The company also expects its TV chip business to outgrow the 10 percent annual rate for the world’s LCD TVs this year, he added.
MStar also reported its best monthly revenue last month. Revenue was NT$3.11 billion last month, up 9.5 percent from NT$2.83 billion a year earlier, but down 9.2 percent from NT$3.42 billion in March.
Local rival MediaTek Corp’s (聯發科) revenue increased 4.19 percent year-on-year to NT$7.94 billion last month from NT$7.62 billion, but down 3.48 percent from March’s NT$8.23 billion.
MediaTek said in a statement that it expected revenue this quarter to expand as high as 20 percent sequentially to NT$23.5 billion, helped by robust demand for smartphone chips.
MediaTek, the nation’s biggest handset chip designer, said the board yesterday approved a proposal to distribute NT$4 per share in cash dividends based on last year’s net profit of NT$13.63 billion, or NT$12.35 per share.
BYPASSING CHINA TARIFFS: In the first five months of this year, Foxconn sent US$4.4bn of iPhones to the US from India, compared with US$3.7bn in the whole of last year Nearly all the iPhones exported by Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) from India went to the US between March and last month, customs data showed, far above last year’s average of 50 percent and a clear sign of Apple Inc’s efforts to bypass high US tariffs imposed on China. The numbers, being reported by Reuters for the first time, show that Apple has realigned its India exports to almost exclusively serve the US market, when previously the devices were more widely distributed to nations including the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. During March to last month, Foxconn, known as Hon Hai Precision Industry
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and the University of Tokyo (UTokyo) yesterday announced the launch of the TSMC-UTokyo Lab to promote advanced semiconductor research, education and talent development. The lab is TSMC’s first laboratory collaboration with a university outside Taiwan, the company said in a statement. The lab would leverage “the extensive knowledge, experience, and creativity” of both institutions, the company said. It is located in the Asano Section of UTokyo’s Hongo, Tokyo, campus and would be managed by UTokyo faculty, guided by directors from UTokyo and TSMC, the company said. TSMC began working with UTokyo in 2019, resulting in 21 research projects,
Ashton Hall’s morning routine involves dunking his head in iced Saratoga Spring Water. For the company that sells the bottled water — Hall’s brand of choice for drinking, brushing his teeth and submerging himself — that is fantastic news. “We’re so thankful to this incredible fitness influencer called Ashton Hall,” Saratoga owner Primo Brands Corp’s CEO Robbert Rietbroek said on an earnings call after Hall’s morning routine video went viral. “He really helped put our brand on the map.” Primo Brands, which was not affiliated with Hall when he made his video, is among the increasing number of companies benefiting from influencer
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) yesterday expressed a downbeat view about the prospects of humanoid robots, given high manufacturing costs and a lack of target customers. Despite rising demand and high expectations for humanoid robots, high research-and-development costs and uncertain profitability remain major concerns, Lam told reporters following the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Taoyuan. “Since it seems a bit unworthy to use such high-cost robots to do household chores, I believe robots designed for specific purposes would be more valuable and present a better business opportunity,” Lam said Instead of investing in humanoid robots, Quanta has opted to invest
RSS