TPK Holding Co (宸鴻), one of Apple Inc’s major touch panel suppliers, beat its forecast yesterday by posting a 13.62 percent increase in revenue last month on the back of strong demand from the notebook computer segment.
Revenue increased to NT$15.77 billion (US$528.4 million) last month, compared with NT$13.88 billion in February, TPK said in its financial statement. The figure represented an annual expansion of 19.24 percent from the NT$13.23 billion posted in March last year.
In the first three months, TPK’s revenue totaled NT$49.43 billion, surpassing its forecast of NT$47 billion and beating Daiwa Capital Markets analyst Birdy Lu’s (呂佳霖) estimate of NT$48.15 billion.
Last month’s revenue growth reflected that there were “more working days in March and that demand for [touch panels used in] notebook computers remains quite strong,” TPK chief financial officer Freddie Liu (劉詩亮) said by telephone.
The quarterly figure represented a sequential decline of 20 percent from NT$61.48 billion in the final quarter of last year.
Because of the limited capacity for notebook computer touch panels, TPK expects business to be flattish in the current quarter, Liu said.
“We do not expect significant revenue contribution from touch panels for notebooks until the second half of this year,” he said, adding that demand from smartphone clients would be flattish before they pitched their new products later this year.
Lu, who gave a “buy” rating to TPK stock with a target price of NT$720, said TPK’s revenue would drop by 7 percent this quarter to NT$44.89 billion, but its sales momentum would pick up by 38 percent in the second half of this year from the first half, driven by new tablets from Apple Inc, Google Inc and Amazon Inc.
Local rival Wintek Corp (勝華) yesterday reported 24.83 percent growth in revenue for last month at NT$6.29 billion, from February’s NT$5.04 billion. That figure was 40 percent lower than the NT$10.49 billion reported a year earlier.
Wintek spokesman Jay Huang (黃忠傑) attributed the growth to increased shipments of its one-glass-solution (OGS) touch panels used in tablets and laptops, as well as more working days last month.
Huang said revenue contribution from OGS touch panels increased to 60 percent last month from 55 percent in February.
First-quarter revenue fell by 18.29 percent to NT$18.68 billion, from NT$22.86 billion in the fourth quarter of last year.
“In the second quarter, revenue will start to grow, driven by growth momentum from smartphones, tablets and notebook computers,” Huang said. “Strength from tablets will be stronger as clients will agressively launch new models.”
OGS touch panels would be increasingly be used in laptops, which would help boost their revenue contribution this year, he said.
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