Acer Inc (宏碁) yesterday reported a net profit of NT$2.74 billion (US$98 million) for last quarter, marking the PC brand’s highest quarterly earnings in a decade.
That represented growth of 391 percent from NT$558 million a year earlier.
On a quarterly basis, net profit jumped about 37 percent from NT$1.99 billion in the fourth quarter of last year.
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Earnings per share surged to NT$0.91 last quarter from NT$0.18 a year earlier and NT$0.67 the previous quarter.
Consolidated revenue reached NT$71.56 billion in the first quarter, up 46.5 percent year-on-year.
Gross profit was NT$8.31 billion, up 67.9 percent year-on-year.
Operating income was NT$2.81 billion, “with a historically high first-quarter margin of 3.9 percent,” a news release by Acer said.
Continued strong demand for notebook PCs contributed to Acer’s robust first-quarter figures.
The distance-learning market in the US, Europe, Japan and Southeast Asia is going strong, while the company’s first-quarter Chromebook sales grew 141 percent year-on-year, a report by the Chinese language Commercial Times said.
Acer’s investment in e-sports has also paid off, with its e-sports laptops, desktops and monitors growing 87 percent year-on-year, the report said.
Acer also announced yesterday on the Taiwan Stock Exchange that it would be selling 4.6 million shares of its subsidiary Highpoint Service Network Corp (海柏特).
According to the Chinese-
language Web site cnyes.com, Highpoint is planning an initial public offering (IPO) in the fourth quarter of this year.
It aims to list on the emerging market index in the second quarter of next year and move to the Taiwan Stock Exchange in the second quarter of 2023, if everything goes well, cnyes.com said.
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