Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶), the world’s No. 2 contract laptop computer maker, yesterday said its sales this year are likely to approach a record high of NT$887 billion (US$29.57 billion), bolstered by a rebound in PC demand from emerging markets.
That would represent about 28 percent growth from last year’s NT$692.75 billion.
Compal also expects revenues to hit a new record next year, supported by rising demand for laptops and non-laptop products, president Ray Chen (陳瑞聰) said at the company’s annual general meeting.
“We made good progress in our laptop shipments in the first half of the year. Shipments increased 15 to 20 percent sequentially this quarter, beating our earlier estimate,” Chen said.
Compal yesterday raised its laptop shipment target for this year from 41 million units to 42 million units, 7.69 percent annual growth from 39 million units last year.
The company supplies laptops to such brands as Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想), Dell Inc and Acer Inc (宏碁).
Chen said demand for commercial laptop models had been increasing steadily in emerging markets such as China and India since the fourth quarter of last year, while demand for consumer laptop models had grown more evidently in the US and Europe beginning this quarter.
The growth is expected to persist through the end of the year, since Microsoft Corp ended its support of its Windows XP operating system in April, he added.
Revenues from its mobile device manufacturing business were forecast to account for 25 percent of the company’s total sales this year and more than 30 percent next year, up from an 18 percent share last year, Chen said.
Compal aims to more than double its smartphone and tablet shipments from 17 million units last year to 35 million units this year as part of its product mix diversification efforts.
Shareholders yesterday approved the company’s proposal to distribute a cash dividend of NT$0.5 per share and a 5 percent stock dividend. That translates into a dividend yield of 2.07 percent based on Compal’s share price of NT$24.2 yesterday.
Last year, due to a NT$4.9 billion one-time write-off from its divestment of loss-making telecom subsidiary Vibo Telecom Inc (威寶), Compal reported a 61 percent drop in net profits to NT$2.46 billion, or NT$0.57 per share.
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