Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), which assembles Apple Inc’s MacBooks and Apple Watch, yesterday said that net profit fell 14 percent annually last quarter due to foreign-exchange losses of NT$1.12 billion (US$35.46 million) .
Net income was NT$3.95 billion last quarter, compared with NT$5.83 billion a year earlier, but expanded 13 percent from the previous quarter’s NT$3.5 billion, company data showed.
“The appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar against the US dollar eroded the company’s profitability last quarter,” Quanta chief financial officer Elton Yang (楊俊烈) told a press conference at the company’s headquarters in Linkou District (林口), New Taipei City.
HIGHER MARGINS
However, Yang said the firm’s notebook computer shipments of 10.9 million units last quarter rose 2.83 percent sequentially and beat its guidance of flat growth.
The notebook computer business contributed between 50 percent and 55 percent to the firm’s total revenue of NT$223.69 billion last quarter, company data showed.
Because of higher shipments of better-margin notebooks, Quanta saw its gross margin improve 0.28 percentage points to 5.52 percent last quarter from the previous quarter’s 5.24 percent, while operating margin climbed 0.66 percentage points to 2.66 percent, data showed.
However, Quanta’s notebook shipments might contract slightly by between 2 percent and 3 percent this quarter from last quarter, vice chairman C.C. Leung (梁次震) said, as the industry is entering its slow season.
For next year, Quanta’s notebook shipments are likely to move in line with the global industry trend, which is forecast to either be flat or drop by as much as 5 percent, he said.
When asked if Hon Hai Precision Industry Co’s (鴻海精密) rising share of Apple Inc’s MacBooks would affect Quanta’s notebook shipments next year, Leung said he could not comment on a specific client.
Quanta supplied about 90 percent of Apple’s MacBooks before 2014, but that figure dipped to 70 percent this year as Hon Hai secured more orders in the past two years, the International Data Corp (IDC) told the Taipei Times on Oct. 21.
IDC said Quanta’s MacBook order allocation could further fall to 60 percent next year, a potentially negative factor to the firm’s overall notebook shipments.
CLOUD COMPUTING
Compared with the uncertain outlook for notebook computers, Quanta chairman Barry Lam (林百里) said that the company’s cloud-computing segment, which contributed slightly more than 30 percent to last quarter’s revenues, would be Quanta’s main growth driver next year.
The order outlook for Quanta’s servers, storages and switches looks strong on the back of rising global demand for cloud-computing technology, Lam said.
Quanta shares rose 1.79 percent to NT$62.7 yesterday, underperforming the TAIEX, which gained 2.34 percent.
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