Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) yesterday said revenue this quarter would fall by 5.3 percent from the previous quarter on weakening demand for controller chips used in mobile phone panels.
However, the rate of decline would be better than the seasonal pattern, said Vanguard, which has a 30 percent share in the global market for controller chips used in LCD panels.
Revenue from controller chips for small LCD panels accounted for 20 percent of the company’s total revenue last quarter.
“We have two months of order visibility,” chairman Leuh Fang (方略) told an investors’ conference. “Revenue is to trend downward as customer demand dwindles.”
Demand is to weaken this quarter as customers are going through inventory digestion, Fang added.
However, Fang said he expects improving demand for consumer electronics to underpin the company’s revenue this quarter, although revenue might still shrink by between 0.76 and 5.3 percent to between NT$6.25 billion and NT$6.55 billion (US$203.29 million and US$213 million) from the previous quarter’s NT$6.6 billion.
The firm forecast that gross margin would fall to between 32 and 34 percent this quarter, from 33.7 percent last quarter, caused by unfavorable foreign-exchange rates.
Last quarter, Vanguard’s net profit grew 3.4 percent quarter-on-quarter to NT$1.36 billion, with earnings per share rising from NT$0.8 to NT$0.82.
That helped bring the company’s whole-year net profit to a record high of NT$5.54 billion, or NT$3.35 per share, the company said.
Vanguard said it plans to boost its capital expenditure this year by about 38 percent to US$1.8 billion, from NT$1.3 billion last year.
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