Pegatron Corp’s (和碩) non-notebook computer business would continue to drive its sales growth in the second half of the year despite the low initial yield rate of Apple Inc’s smaller iPad, British bank Barclays PLC said.
In a research note dated on Thursday, Barclays said it expected the Taiwanese contract maker to ship 3 million units of the iPad mini in the fourth quarter, which would result in revenues of NT$16.2 billion (US$552.4 million) or an 8 percent hike in its current sales forecast for the period.
Barclays had originally forecast that Pegatron would assemble 70 percent of the total iPad mini production this year, but the ratio was revised down to 30 percent because of Pegatron’s likely yield rate issue, the bank said.
Unlike Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海), Pegatron lacks the experience for tablet assembly, which has a long learning curve,” Kirk Yang (楊應超), a Hong Kong-based analyst at Barclays, wrote in the note.
In particular, the new iPad mini is expected to have a narrower bezel allowing for a larger screen in the 7.85-inch form factor, causing a relatively lower assembly yield rate than the 9.7-inch iPad version, Yang said.
Hon Hai, which was the exclusive assembler of iPads, would assemble 6 million to 7 million units of the iPad mini, or 60 percent of the total allocation for 2012, he added.
Although Barclays’ analysis suggested that the mass production of iPad minis had been delayed from last month to this month on account of supply constraints of some key components, Yang believed Apple would not postpone its iPad mini launch.
“As most iPad component vendors ramp up shipments in September that would continue into the fourth quarter of 2012, we do not see any signs of a postponed shipment schedule, suggesting an on-time October product launch,” Yang said.
In addition, Yang forecast Pegatron’s non-Apple tablet shipments to grow by 29 percent year-on-year to 4 million units this year, helped by new orders from software giant Microsoft Corp, US bookstore chain Barnes & Noble Inc and some white-box makers.
A white-box tablet is a model without a registered brand name, which is usually cheaper than branded tablets and is expected to gain traction among price-sensitive consumers.
Barclays maintained its “overweight” stock rating on Pegatron with a target price of NT$47.
Shares of Pegatron closed 2.28 percent higher at NT$38.15 on Friday.
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
With an approval rating of just two percent, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte might be the world’s most unpopular leader, according to pollsters. Protests greeted her rise to power 29 months ago, and have marked her entire term — joined by assorted scandals, investigations, controversies and a surge in gang violence. The 63-year-old is the target of a dozen probes, including for her alleged failure to declare gifts of luxury jewels and watches, a scandal inevitably dubbed “Rolexgate.” She is also under the microscope for a two-week undeclared absence for nose surgery — which she insists was medical, not cosmetic — and is
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designer specializing in artificial-intelligence (AI) chips, yesterday said that small-volume production of 3-nanometer (nm) chips for a key customer is on track to start by the end of this year, dismissing speculation about delays in producing advanced chips. As Alchip is transitioning from 7-nanometer and 5-nanometer process technology to 3 nanometers, investors and shareholders have been closely monitoring whether the company is navigating through such transition smoothly. “We are proceeding well in [building] this generation [of chips]. It appears to me that no revision will be required. We have achieved success in designing
RSS