Giga Solar Materials Corp (碩禾), a photovoltaic conductive paste maker, expects revenues to grow between 20 and 30 percent annually this year, thanks to rising global solar panel installations, a company executive said yesterday.
However, that growth pace would be much slower than last year’s 63.25 percent year-on-year growth. Revenues last year surged to a historic high of NT$15.8 billion (US$488.86 million) from NT$9.68 billion in 2014.
However, business outlook for the current quarter is bleak, due to short supply of silver powder, a key raw material for Giga Solar to make front and rear silver paste used in solar cells, company general manager Cafer Huang (黃文瑞) told reporters on the sideline of the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting.
The weakness would extend into early next quarter, Huang said.
Front silver paste is the firm’s biggest revenue source, contributing about 70 percent to the company’s revenue last year. In addition to front silver paste, Giga Solar also makes rear silver paste and aluminum paste.
For the whole of this year, Giga Solar “will outgrow the overall solar industry. Revenues this year will grow between 20 and 30 percent from last year,” Huang said.
The global solar industry is expected to grow about 17 percent year-on-year to 67 gigawatts this year, compared with 57 gigawatts last year, Giga Solar said in an annual report, citing a forecast made by industry researcher Photon International.
Giga Solar aims to increase its shipments of photovoltaic conductive paste by between 15 and 20 percent this year from last year, according to the annual report.
Giga Solar shareholders yesterday approved the management’s proposal to distribute a cash dividend of NT$20 per common share, representing a payout ratio of 50 percent based on the firm’s earnings per share of NT$39.65 last year.
Shares of Giga Solar sank 6.13 percent to NT$475 yesterday, weighed by concerns over the ownership infighting in its parent company Gigastorage Corp (國碩), which makes solar wafers. Gigastorage shares fell 1.82 percent to NT$24.3.
Gigastorage discharged senior vice president Carl Lee (李朝欽) on Saturday due to Lee’s personal career plans and differences between Lee and the company’s management in how to manage the company, according to a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Lee, who has been with the company for 16 years, was a spokesman and a financial executive of Gigastorage before he got fired.
Gigastorage chairman Jimmy Chen (陳繼明), who is also chairman of Giga Solar, pledged to safeguard the company’s ownership and to win most of the seats in the company’s 12-member board.
Gigastorage is scheduled to hold an annual shareholder’s meeting on June 23 to elect board directors and to seek shareholders’ approval of its annual financial report.
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