Shares of Phison Electronics Corp (群聯電子), a supplier of NAND flash memory controllers and modules, rallied 1.63 percent yesterday, snapping two straight losing sessions after it unveiled a NT$607.86 million (US$21.89 million) real-estate investment.
The expansion plan reinforced Phison’s optimism about demand for memory chips as the Miaoli County-based company said it seeks to capture new growth opportunities after a “super boom cycle” in the semiconductor industry.
The comments came after the company’s board of directors on Thursday approved the investment. The stock price of Phison jumped 1.63 percent to NT$466.5 yesterday, better than the TPEX’s gain of 1.03 percent.
With its research and development centers to be fully utilized in the next few years, Phison plans to build a new center on the land it purchased in Hsinchu, real estate that was previously owned by LED chipmaker Tyntek Corp (鼎元光電).
“Market demand is strong and customer projects keep coming in every day,” Phison said in a company statement yesterday. “We plan to add 300 to 500 new engineers this year.”
Phison has said it cannot hire enough engineers, as demand remains high.
To address the shortage, Phison in January held a beam-raising ceremony for its new phase 5 facility at the Guangyuan Science Park (廣源科學園區) in Miaoli County’s Jhunan Township (竹南).
Phison planned to finish the nearly NT$1.4 billion research and development center and office building in the third quarter, and begin operations by the end of September.
The center would provide working space for 1,500 to 2,000 engineers, the company said.
At an investors’ conference early this month, Phison gave an upbeat outlook for the current quarter, citing persistently strong demand for NAND flash memory controllers and modules.
The growth momentum is to carry into next quarter, it said.
Phison has set an internal target to boost gross margin further this quarter from last quarter’s 29.5 percent, with the company planning to ship more high-margin controllers to improve its product portfolio, Phison chairman Pua Khein-seng (潘健成) told investors.
The company increased chip prices this quarter to reflect higher manufacturing costs driven by semiconductor supply chain shortages, Pua said.
The company expects no relaxation in supply constraints until next quarter, he said.
It also aims to improve this quarter’s operating profit sequentially, compared with NT$1.84 billion last quarter, he said.
Net profit last quarter dwindled 11.1 percent to NT$1.69 billion, from NT$1.9 billion a year earlier.
On a quarterly basis, net profit plunged 55.4 percent from NT$3.78 billion in the fourth quarter last year.
Last quarter’s net profit was the second-highest first-quarter performance in the company’s 20-year history.
Earnings per share dropped to NT$8.56 last quarter, from NT$9.63 a year earlier and NT$19.2 in the fourth quarter last year.
Revenue rose 0.2 percent annually to NT$12.89 billion from NT$12.87 billion, while sequential growth was 0.4 percent from NT$12.84 billion in the fourth quarter last year.
NAND flash memory modules accounted for 74 percent of last quarter’s revenue.
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