ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip tester and packager, on Friday reported net profit of NT$27.59 billion (US$968.8 million) for the whole of last year, up 63.77 percent from a year earlier and the highest in the company’s history.
Earnings per share for last year were NT$6.47, ASE said in a regulatory filing.
The company reported earnings per share of NT$3.96 for 2019.
Photo: Hung Yu-fang, Taipei Times
The company reported consolidated revenue of NT$ 476.98 billion for last year, up 15.44 percent from 2019, with its core assembly, testing and materials (ATM) business contributing NT$280.3 billion, or 58.76 percent, of the total, the company said.
In the fourth quarter, ASE’s net profit reached NT$10.05 billion, up 49.6 percent quarter-on-quarter and 57.4 percent year-on-year, company data showed.
Earnings per share were NT$2.35 for the quarter, also the highest quarterly result in the company’s history.
ASE did not elaborate on its financial performance for last quarter and last year as a whole in the filing.
The Kaohsiung-based company said that it released the unaudited financial results to “avoid improper market speculation” in light of “recent speculative media reporting in relation to the company’s financial performance.”
Analysts said that the company’s ATM and electronics manufacturing services (EMS) businesses performed better than expected, as the ATM business was supported by wire bonding price hikes, as well as healthy demand for other sectors such as bumping, flip-chip packaging and wafer-level packaging.
The increase in demand for iPhone antenna-in-package designs and other new projects also boosted its EMS business, they added.
Wire bonding is the most commonly adopted packaging technology, and involves using metal wires to connect the junctures on an IC to a lead frame for signal transmission, Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co (元大投顧) said.
ASE has the largest wire bonding capacity among all packaging suppliers, Yuanta added.
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