Catcher Technology Co (可成), the nation’s leading supplier of light metal casings and enclosures for mobile devices, last week reported weaker-than-expected financial results for last year, as well as falling sales in the first two months of this year.
Net income dropped 59.7 percent year-on-year to NT$11.27 billion (US$373.06 million), or earnings per share of NT$14.63, after revenue decreased 4 percent to NT$91.63 billion, the company said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday last week.
Gross margin of 24.3 percent and operating margin of 15.4 percent were both lower than a year earlier due to sliding capacity utilization and reduced prices.
Cumulative revenue in the first two months of this year was NT$9.93 billion, up 18.8 percent from NT$20.41 billion in the same period last year, but last month’s revenue plunged 41.3 percent year-on-year and about 74 percent month-on-month to NT$2.02 billion, the lowest in nine years, company data showed.
Catcher said that its revenue performance was due mainly to the COVID-19 outbreak, as disease-prevention policies hampered its operations and logistics.
JPMorgan Securities (Taiwan) Ltd (摩根大通證券) said that Catcher’s revenue for this month should recover from the previous month thanks to an improving rate of workers returning to production lines at its plants in China.
However, it might still be shy of market consensus estimates by a “big shortfall,” JPMorgan said in a note on Wednesday, without elaborating.
Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co (元大投顧) said the company’s lower production scale amid the COVID-19 pandemic could lead to a lower-than-expected gross margin this quarter.
“However, we believe its low gross margin from last year should recover in 2020, with likely better-than-expected iPhone 11 sales, while its high confidence in its business relationships with major clients will enable it to see iPhone shipment growth,” Yuanta said in a note to clients on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, China-based Luxshare Precision Industry Co (立訊精密) is rumored to be expanding its presence in Apple Inc’s iPhone assembly business by as early as next year, with Catcher likely a major partner for metal casing and frame manufacturing, Chinese-language media reported.
Yuanta said that Catcher’s position in Apple’s casing supply chain should remain stable if Luxshare makes the move.
However, JPMorgan said it would not necessarily be a positive development for Catcher, due to potential regulatory approval headwinds and downside risks for market share dynamics.
Catcher shares fell 19.62 percent for the whole of last week and have dropped 16.08 percent so far this year.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the