Ginko International Co (金可國際), which makes contact lenses and lens-care solution, maintained its revenue growth target of 25 percent in the second half of this year as the company gradually increases sales of its disposable contact lenses in China.
“Ginko aims to increase sales of its disposable contact lenses to between 33 percent and 35 percent of its total revenue this year, from 25 percent last year,” Ginko vice president Sonny Pan (潘銘雄) said on Thursday.
The disposable contact lens segment is growing more rapidly compared with the contact lens and lens-care solution markets in China, which posted a composite annual growth rate of 17 percent from 2008 through last year, Pan said.
Last quarter, sales of disposable contact lenses increased to 33 percent of the company’s total revenue, compared with 31 percent in the first quarter.
From January through last month, revenue grew 24.02 percent to NT$3.3 billion from NT$2.66 billion the previous year, according to a company filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Ginko said its revenue for this month and next month would reach the highest August-to-September sales level in the company’s history, adding that revenue this quarter would post a quarterly increase of between 10 percent and 15 percent.
Ginko in June received approval from China to market its Hydron-brand daily disposable contact lenses. The company expects its monthly and biweekly disposable contact lenses to be approved next quarter.
Taiwan-made Hydron disposable contact lenses enjoy a 15 percent price premium over others sold in China, Pan said.
Overall, the company plans to start selling its Taiwan-made products in China next quarter, Pan said, hoping to increase their sales contribution to 10 percent of total revenue in 2016 from 5 percent next year.
Ginko enjoyed a market share of 32 percent in the Chinese contact lens market last year, followed by Bausch & Lomb Inc, which had 24 percent, according to the company.
The company plans to reduce the turnover days of account receivable to 150 days in China in the second half of this year, from 180 days in the first half, as Ginko does not need to expand its market share by offering long-term payment plans to clients, Pan said.
In the April-to-June quarter, Ginko posted a profit of NT$405.15 million, or earnings per share of NT$4.37, up 10.99 percent from NT$365.04 million (NT$4.02 per share) the previous year and 20.6 percent higher than NT$335.95 million, or earnings per share of NT$3.64, the previous quarter, the company said.
Last quarter’s results were lower than a market consensus forecast because of foreign-exchange losses resulting from the depreciation of the yuan, SinoPac Securities Co (永豐金證券) said yesterday.
SinoPac forecast that Ginko will report a profit of NT$1.72 billion this year, up 21.12 percent from NT$1.42 billion last year. The figure was 3.9 percent lower than NT$1.79 billion it previously forecast.
Ginko shares fell 0.22 percent yesterday to close at NT$447.5, outperforming the GRETAI, which closed down 0.77 percent.
COMPETITION: AMD, Intel and Qualcomm are unveiling new laptop and desktop parts in Las Vegas, arguing their technologies provide the best performance for AI workloads Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD), the second-biggest maker of computer processors, said its chips are to be used by Dell Technologies Inc for the first time in PCs sold to businesses. The chipmaker unveiled new processors it says would make AMD-based PCs the best at running artificial intelligence (AI) software. Dell has decided to use the chips in some of its computers aimed at business customers, AMD executives said at CES in Las Vegas on Monday. Dell’s embrace of AMD for corporate PCs — it already uses the chipmaker for consumer devices — is another blow for Intel Corp as the company
ADVANCED: Previously, Taiwanese chip companies were restricted from building overseas fabs with technology less than two generations behind domestic factories Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp, would no longer be restricted from investing in next-generation 2-nanometer chip production in the US, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. However, the ministry added that the world’s biggest contract chipmaker would not be making any reckless decisions, given the weight of its up to US$30 billion investment. To safeguard Taiwan’s chip technology advantages, the government has barred local chipmakers from making chips using more advanced technologies at their overseas factories, in China particularly. Chipmakers were previously only allowed to produce chips using less advanced technologies, specifically
MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday said it is teaming up with Nvidia Corp to develop a new chip for artificial intelligence (AI) supercomputers that uses architecture licensed from Arm Holdings PLC. The new product is targeting AI researchers, data scientists and students rather than the mass PC market, the company said. The announcement comes as MediaTek makes efforts to add AI capabilities to its Dimensity chips for smartphones and tablets, Genio family for the Internet of Things devices, Pentonic series of smart TVs, Kompanio line of Arm-based Chromebooks, along with the Dimensity auto platform for vehicles. MeidaTek, the world’s largest chip designer for smartphones
BRAVE NEW WORLD: Nvidia believes that AI would fuel a new industrial revolution and would ‘do whatever we can’ to guide US AI policy, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Tuesday said he is ready to meet US president-elect Donald Trump and offer his help to the incoming administration. “I’d be delighted to go see him and congratulate him, and do whatever we can to make this administration succeed,” Huang said in an interview with Bloomberg Television, adding that he has not been invited to visit Trump’s home base at Mar-a-Lago in Florida yet. As head of the world’s most valuable chipmaker, Huang has an opportunity to help steer the administration’s artificial intelligence (AI) policy at a moment of rapid change.
RSS