Global Unichip Corp (創意電子), which designs application-specific ICs (ASICs), yesterday posted its lowest profit in three years as demand sagged due to a US-China trade dispute and cryptocurrency weakness.
Global Unichip is 34.84 percent owned by contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), which produces chips for cryptocurrency mining machine chip supplier Bitmain Technologies Ltd (比特大陸).
Net income plunged 35.93 percent to NT$633 million (US$21.04 million), compared with NT$988 million in 2018, while earnings per share dropped from NT$7.37 to NT$4.37, the company said in a financial statement.
Revenue fell 20.43 percent to NT$10.71 billion, from NT$13.46 billion the previous year, but gross margin improved from 29.8 percent to 33 percent over the period, the statement showed.
Global Unichip’s board of directors approved the distribution of a NT$5 cash dividend per common share, a payout ratio exceeding 100 percent.
The dividend is subject to shareholders’ approval at an annual meeting scheduled for May 14.
The company’s net income was last year buoyed by strong fourth-quarter results, which showed a rebound in profit to NT$275 million, tripling from NT$102 million in the third quarter, but little changed from NT$276 million a year earlier, with earnings per share of NT$2.06.
Revenue last quarter surged 36 percent quarter-on-quarter to NT$3.3 billion, due to increases in its major ASIC and non-recurring engineering services businesses, Global Unichip said.
On an annual basis, revenue contracted 7 percent from NT$3.55 billion, it said.
Products based on 7-nanometer technology last quarter contributed 3 percent to its overall revenue, up from 1 percent in the previous quarter, Global Unichip said.
The proportion of revenue from such products to total sales was 22 percent a year ago, company data showed.
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