Largan Precision Co (大立光), the nation’s leading maker of handset lenses, yesterday reported that sales expanded 32 percent last month from February, according to information posted on the company’s Web site.
Consolidated revenue grew to NT$1.63 billion from NT$1.23 billion the previous month, but it was still lower than the NT$2.24 billion posted in January.
On a yearly basis, last month’s figure represented an increase of 24 percent from NT$1.31 billion in March last year, the firm said.
As a result, revenue in the first quarter of the year totaled NT$5.1 billion, down 40.56 percent quarter-on-quarter, but 40.19 percent higher than a year earlier, company data showed.
The Greater Taichung-based company — whose customers include HTC Corp (宏達電), Apple Inc, Nokia Oyj and BlackBerry Ltd — had said in late January that first-quarter sales would decline sequentially and gave a conservative outlook for the second quarter because of product transitions at major clients.
“Revenue is likely to go down slightly in the first quarter” from the previous quarter’s NT$8.58 billion, Largan chief executive Adam Lin (林恩平) told an investors’ conference on Jan. 31, citing fewer working days due to the Lunar New Year holiday in February and because of reduced orders from some clients.
Amid market worries that weakening iPhone sales could result in another revenue decline in the second quarter, the company told investors that it had received orders from a South Korean client and would start shipments of high-end lenses for the client in the second quarter.
Though Largan did not identify the South Korean client, analysts viewed the move as a breakthrough for the Taiwanese firm and forecast that increased orders from non-Apple clients would lead to better average selling prices and profit margins this quarter.
In the first quarter, HTC, BlackBerry and Samsung Electronics Co all launched their latest flagship smartphone models. The first two are hoping the new devices can help them win back market share, while the latter is is aiming to maintain its stronghold in the smartphone industry.
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