TPK Holding Co (宸鴻), which supplies touchpanels for Apple Inc’s iPads and Apple Watches, yesterday said net profit rose about 1,100 percent last quarter from a year earlier, helped by asset disposal gains.
Net profits surged to NT$616 million (US$20.39 million) last quarter, compared with NT$52 million a year earlier. On a quarterly basis, net profits more than doubled from NT$296 million in the fourth quarter last year.
Earnings per share rose to NT$1.78 last quarter from NT$0.15 a year earlier and NT$0.89 a quarter earlier.
“Non-operating income has helped alleviate the company’s concerns about [profit] weakness during the slow season,” TPK chief financial officer Freddie Liu (劉詩亮) told investors in a teleconference.
The company reported NT$621 million in non-operating income, primarily from selling a stake in a subsidiary and idle land in China.
TPK also saw an improvement in its operations as it reported an operating income of NT$120 million last quarter, from an operating loss of NT$357 million a year earlier and a loss of NT$45 million a quarter earlier.
Robust customer demand for tablet touchpanels helped TPK earn an operating income as clients are to launch new models, TPK chief executive officer Michael Chung (鍾依華) said.
The momentum is to be fueled by clients’ sales of new smartphones in the second half, he said.
“Our goal is to book operating income every quarter this year,” Chung said. “We also aim to see year-over-year growth in revenue every quarter.”
The company said revenue would remain flat from last quarter’s NT$21.42 billion, which would represent annual growth of 25 percent from NT$17.09 billion in the second quarter of last year.
Operating margin is to reach between 0.6 percent and 1 percent this quarter, little changed from 0.6 percent last quarter, it said.
TPK declined to comment whether the company has regained orders from Apple for its new iPhone 8 series. The company stopped supplying touchpanels to Apple after the US company began adopting in-cell touchpanels for its iPhone 5 series.
TPK has been working with clients to develop new touchpanels for smartphones equipped with OLED screens, giving the company an advantage in winning orders, Chung said.
To cater to customers’ demands, TPK has created a new division to develop touchpanels used in smartphones, Chung said.
As for its strategic partnership with Chinese touchpanel maker O-film Tech Co (歐菲光) announced last month, Chung said the collaboration would have a positive effect and would not affect customers’ orders in the short term, hinting that O-film is not to compete with TPK for Apple’s orders.
Zhang Yazhou was sitting in the passenger seat of her Tesla Model 3 when she said she heard her father’s panicked voice: The brakes do not work. Approaching a red light, her father swerved around two cars before plowing into a sport utility vehicle and a sedan, and crashing into a large concrete barrier. Stunned, Zhang gazed at the deflating airbag in front of her. She could never have imagined what was to come: Tesla Inc sued her for defamation for complaining publicly about the vehicles brakes — and won. A Chinese court ordered Zhang to pay more than US$23,000 in
‘LEGACY CHIPS’: Chinese companies have dramatically increased mature chip production capacity, but the West’s drive for secure supply chains offers a lifeline for Taiwan When Powerchip Technology Corp (力晶科技) entered a deal with the eastern Chinese city of Hefei in 2015 to set up a new chip foundry, it hoped the move would help provide better access to the promising Chinese market. However, nine years later, that Chinese foundry, Nexchip Semiconductor Corp (合晶集成), has become one of its biggest rivals in the legacy chip space, leveraging steep discounts after Beijing’s localization call forced Powerchip to give up the once-lucrative business making integrated circuits for Chinese flat panels. Nexchip is among Chinese foundries quickly winning market share in the crucial US$56.3 billion industry of so-called legacy
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday held its first board of directors meeting in the US, at which it did not unveil any new US investments despite mounting tariff threats from US President Donald Trump. Trump has threatened to impose 100 percent tariffs on Taiwan-made chips, prompting market speculation that TSMC might consider boosting its chip capacity in the US or ramping up production of advanced chips such as those using a 2-nanometer technology process at its Arizona fabs ahead of schedule. Speculation also swirled that the chipmaker might consider building its own advanced packaging capacity in the US as part
‘NO DISRUPTION’: A US trade association said that it was ready to work with the US administration to streamline the program’s requirements and achieve shared goals The White House is seeking to renegotiate US CHIPS and Science Act awards and has signaled delays to some upcoming semiconductor disbursements, two sources familiar with the matter told reporters. The people, along with a third source, said that the new US administration is reviewing the projects awarded under the 2022 law, meant to boost US domestic semiconductor output with US$39 billion in subsidies. Washington plans to renegotiate some of the deals after assessing and changing current requirements, the sources said. The extent of the possible changes and how they would affect agreements already finalized was not immediately clear. It was not known
RSS