Largan Precision Co (大立光), the nation’s leading handset camera lens manufacturer, yesterday posted a 25.77 percent quarterly decline in net profit for last quarter to NT$4.99 billion (US$168.7 million), reaching its weakest level in nine quarters due to sagging demand.
Largan in the first quarter made NT$6.72 billion in net profit, the company said.
Earnings per share in the last quarter dropped to NT$37.19 from NT$50.1 in the previous quarter.
Photo: Chen Mei-ying, Taipei Times
The Taichung-based company yesterday also booked a nonoperating loss of NT$536.42 million for the last quarter, reversing a nonoperating income of NT$414.64 million in the first quarter.
Gross margin fell slightly to 68.63 percent, compared with 69.8 percent in the first quarter, the company’s financial statement showed.
In an investors’ conference, Largan CEO Adam Lin (林恩平) gave conservative projections.
“I think July and August are going to be about the same as June,” Lin said.
Largan last month posted monthly revenue growth of 6.98 percent to NT$4.14 billion, ending two straight months of declines.
Regarding the company’s revenue outlook for September and October, Lin said: “I cannot see that far.”
Lin blamed softening demand rather than market share loss to competitors for the drop, saying: “Demand is down. Demand for high-specification products, especially” was down, Lin said.
When asked about the prospects of Chinese competition increasing next year, Lin said: “I do not know.”
Institutional investors in the conference said they were curious about the company’s plans for new continuous or fixed optical zoom lens products for smartphone cameras.
Lin said it would be a daunting task from a technical perspective to create the lenses with the limiting form factor of mobile phones and to achieve the high level of precision required to make the lens.
“Everybody wants this, but it is just hard,” Lin said.
The company’s freeform lens technology is in the testing phase, he said, adding that he is optimistic that by the end of the year, Largan would begin shipping the product.
Largan would keep pace with the research and development of new products, “but it is up to the clients whether they get designed” into new products, Lin said.
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