E Ink Holdings Inc (元太科技), the world’s sole supplier of e-paper displays for e-readers and shelf labels, posted its best quarterly net profit for the first quarter in nine years amid increased demand during a traditionally slow season.
Net profit soared 80 percent to NT$787 million (US$26.23 million) in the quarter ended March 31, compared with NT$438 million a year earlier. That translated into earnings per share of NT$0.69, up from NT$0.39.
E Ink posted lower royalty income of NT$371.23 million last quarter from NT$448.74 million a year earlier, a company financial statement showed.
E Ink said that it expects royalty income to continue to fall this quarter due to increasing adoption of rivals’ OLED technology.
Gross margin jumped to 46.2 percent from 42.4 percent in the prior year, as it shipped more e-paper display films, which delivered a higher margin than fully assembled e-paper display modules with panels attached.
The Hsinchu-based company expects growth momentum to continue this quarter, with strong demand for electronic shelf labels and color e-paper displays mainly for e-readers.
“The second quarter looks like a stronger quarter than the same period last year. Outlook for the second quarter is relatively positive,” E Ink chairman Johnson Lee (李政昊) told an investors’ teleconference on Thursday.
E Ink’s revenue this quarter might surpass the NT$3.56 billion in the second quarter last year, which would mean revenue grew more than 22 percent from last quarter’s NT$2.92 billion, the company said.
The COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating adoption of electronic shelf labels, which allow retailers to update product price displays automatically from a central controller, it said.
However, some installations are to be delayed due to lockdowns in many countries to curb the spread of the virus, the company said.
Robust demand for color printing e-paper displays due to their affordability has far surpassed its expectations, E Ink said.
Due to limited capacity, order backlogs would not be digested until August or September, Lee said.
E Ink is racing to expand capacity for the color e-paper displays to satisfy demand, he said.
China’s iFLYTEK Corp (科大訊飛) plans to roll out new e-readers equipped with E Ink’s color displays this quarter, E Ink said.
European e-reader maker PocketBook also plans to launch color e-readers that adopt E Ink’s technology, it said.
Meanwhile, Hisense Electric Co (海信) is adopting E Ink color displays for its new smartphone.
The Chinese firm said it plans to allocate 15 percent more capital spending this year than last year.
Over the past few years, E Ink has spent NT$700 million to NT$800 million a year on new equipment and facilities.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
RSS