Television and online retailer Momo.com Inc (富邦媒體) last week reported its highest quarterly profit since it was listed on the nation’s main board in 2014, driven by steady growth in its online business-to-customer segment and a disposal gain from the sale of Taiwan Pelican Express Co (台灣宅配通) shares.
Net profit increased 76.6 percent annually to NT$780.5 million (US$27.92 million) in the first quarter, or earnings per share of NT$5.57, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.
Momo.com said that its non-operating gains totaled NT$101.5 million in the first quarter, including a NT$99 million disposal gain from Pelican shares.
Photo: Vanessa Cho, Taipei Times
Quarterly revenue rose 21.6 percent to NT$18.36 billion, the second-highest quarterly sales in the company’s history, thanks to its increasing market share in Taiwan’s retail sector as more consumers embrace online shopping amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the company said.
“The number of active users and orders remained at a healthy level of 20 percent year-on-year during the quarter, indicating that Taiwanese consumers’ e-commerce value preference continued to shift to fast and free delivery, one-stop shopping and a quality online shopping experience,” Momo.com said.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) increased 42.6 percent to a record NT$1.07 billion in the first quarter, while the blended EBITDA margin came in at 5.8 percent, compared with 5 percent a year earlier, which the company attributed to stronger bargaining power with suppliers, and the effects of a larger sales scale and improved operating efficiency.
Momo.com, a retail subsidiary of Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大), operates three virtual platforms — online shopping, TV home shopping and catalog shopping.
The favorable results for the January-to-March period came as the firm’s business-to-customer segment, which accounted for 92.3 percent of its total revenue in the first quarter, expanded 24.5 percent year-on-year to NT$16.94 billion, aided by strong sales from fashion and luxury products, consumer electronics and home appliances, as well as greater demand for beauty and healthcare, and sports and leisure goods due to the pandemic.
To maintain its leadership position in Taiwan’s e-commerce market, the company said that it would continue to scale up its logistics network nationwide, including distribution centers and satellite warehouses, which would help it lower costs and shorten shipping times.
Momo.com said that it would start construction of its southern distribution center in Tainan’s Sinshih District (新市) in the second quarter of this year, with operations beginning in 2023.
The company’s northern distribution center in Taoyuan’s Dayuan District (大園) opened in 2017.
The company also aims to expand its number of satellite warehouses to 30, from 22, by the end of this year, it added.
Satellite warehouses serve as delivery access points where products are pre-stocked to shorten delivery times and improve operating efficiency, it said.
Nissan Motor Co has agreed to sell its global headquarters in Yokohama for ￥97 billion (US$630 million) to a group sponsored by Taiwanese autoparts maker Minth Group (敏實集團), as the struggling automaker seeks to shore up its financial position. The acquisition is led by a special purchase company managed by KJR Management Ltd, a Japanese real-estate unit of private equity giant KKR & Co, people familiar with the matter said. KJR said it would act as asset manager together with Mizuho Real Estate Management Co. Nissan is undergoing a broad cost-cutting campaign by eliminating jobs and shuttering plants as it grapples
TEMPORARY TRUCE: China has made concessions to ease rare earth trade controls, among others, while Washington holds fire on a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods China is effectively suspending implementation of additional export controls on rare earth metals and terminating investigations targeting US companies in the semiconductor supply chain, the White House announced. The White House on Saturday issued a fact sheet outlining some details of the trade pact agreed to earlier in the week by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) that aimed to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Under the deal, China is to issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite “for the benefit of US end users and their suppliers
Dutch chipmaker Nexperia BV’s China unit yesterday said that it had established sufficient inventories of finished goods and works-in-progress, and that its supply chain remained secure and stable after its parent halted wafer supplies. The Dutch company suspended supplies of wafers to its Chinese assembly plant a week ago, calling it “a direct consequence of the local management’s recent failure to comply with the agreed contractual payment terms,” Reuters reported on Friday last week. Its China unit called Nexperia’s suspension “unilateral” and “extremely irresponsible,” adding that the Dutch parent’s claim about contractual payment was “misleading and highly deceptive,” according to a statement
The Chinese government has issued guidance requiring new data center projects that have received any state funds to only use domestically made artificial intelligence (AI) chips, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. In recent weeks, Chinese regulatory authorities have ordered such data centers that are less than 30 percent complete to remove all installed foreign chips, or cancel plans to purchase them, while projects in a more advanced stage would be decided on a case-by-case basis, the sources said. The move could represent one of China’s most aggressive steps yet to eliminate foreign technology from its critical infrastructure amid a
RSS