Net profit of TPK Holding Co (宸鴻), a supplier of touch panels and sensors, more than quadrupled to NT$1.03 billion (US$36.45 million) last year from NT$209 million in 2019, as the COVID-19 pandemic boosted demand for equipment for tablets and notebook computers, the firm said yeaterday.
Work-from-home and online-learning trends were the main drivers, with tablets and notebook computer equipment surging to 46 percent of total revenue last year from 34 percent in 2019, replacing smartphone touch products as the biggest revenue source, it said.
The pandemic-driven demand also helped bring TPK back to the black last quarter, the firm said.
Net profit increased to NT$241 million in the fourth quarter last year, compared with a loss of NT$98 million in the same period in 2019, it said.
On a quarterly basis, net profit last quarter tumbled 45.5 percent from NT$443 million, due to order losses and seasonal weakness, the company said.
Shipments of touch products used in smartphones were down about 60 percent quarter-on-quarter, while shipments of touch products for tablets rose 5 percent, TPK said.
Touch products for notebook computers did not show any slowdown in the off-season last quarter, TPK said.
Gross margin improved to 4.6 percent last quarter, from 3.9 percent in the third quarter last year, as TPK shipped more higher-price equipment for tablets and laptop computers, the company said.
TPK expects that the growth momentum would carry over into this quarter.
“The first quarter looks like a quite good season,” TPK chief strategy officer Freddie Liu (劉詩亮) told investors in a telephone conference yesterday.
“We have received rush orders from mobile phone customers, making the first quarter better than before. Notebook computers do not show significant seasonal decline,” he said.
Revenue was NT$25.49 last quarter, and TPK aims to increase that by 5 to 10 percent this quarter, Liu said.
Operating profit margin was 0.7 percent last quarter, Liu said, adding that the company aims to to keep that stable, forecasting 0.5 to 1 percent this quarter.
TPK said that it would budget 20 percent for capital expenditure this year, or NT$2 billion, as it is seeking to increase capacity for better-margin products and module assembly lines.
“Over the past few years, we have been aggressively moving upward in the vehicle supply chain. We hope to expand our product portfolios in this area,” TPK chief executive officer Leo Hsieh (謝立群) said.
TPK forecasts that touch panels for vehicles would contribute 10 percent to its revenue in the next two years, Hsieh said.
TPK has been supplying touch panels to a major US electric vehicle maker and expanded to other firms in the industry, he said.
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