Contract electronics maker Wistron Corp (緯創) is planning to expand production in Taiwan and Mexico this year as part of its global expansion.
The company expects to spend NT$16 billion (US$562.27 million) in capital expenditure this year, largely to be spent in Taiwan and Mexico, Wistron chairman Simon Lin (林憲銘) said at an investors’ conference on Wednesday.
Wistron’s global expansion plan is intended to reduce risks amid growing geopolitical tensions, Lin said.
Photo: CNA
Moreover, production diversification should allow the company to locate is facilities closer to international customers, he added.
In addition to Taiwan and Mexico, Wistron is considering investments in Vietnam later this year as part of its Southeast Asian development plans, Lin said.
China accounts for between 50 percent and 60 percent of Wistron’s production capacity, but that share is expected to fall as investment in Taiwan, Mexico and Vietnam rises, he said.
Capital expenditures for this year would also be put toward developing value-added products such as automotive electronics, servers and artificial intelligence devices, Lin said.
To meet funding demands, Wistron is selling up to 250 million shares in Taiwan or as global depositary receipts overseas.
Wistron on Wednesday said that net profit last year rose 20.6 percent year-on-year to NT$10.47 billion, or earnings per share of NT$3.76, while its consolidated sales totaled NT$862.08 billion, up 2 percent from a year earlier.
With the strong earnings, Wistron has proposed to issue a NT$2.2 cash dividend per share, suggesting a payout ratio of 58.51 percent.
Based on the closing price of Wistron shares at NT$29.6 yesterday, the dividend yield would be 7.43 percent.
Wistron president Jeff Lin (林建勳) said that the impact from a shortage of raw materials for notebook computer production had been eased to some extent from the previous year.
The company is to place a greater emphasis on commercial personal computers this year, with the expectation that shipments should rise 40 percent from last year, he said.
Separately, PC vendor Acer Inc (宏碁) on Wednesday said that its net profit last year was NT$10.897 billion, an 11-year high.
The 81 percent year-on-year increase was part of a rise in earnings per share to NT$3.63, compared with NT$2.01 in 2020, Acer said.
Consolidated sales totaled NT$319.01 billion, up 15.1 percent from 2020, with gross margin improving to 11.7 percent and net margin standing at 4.4 percent, the highest in the company’s history.
Given its strong showing last year, the company has proposed issuing a NT$2.28 cash dividend per share, representing a payout ratio of 62.81 percent.
TECH RACE: The Chinese firm showed off its new Mate XT hours after the latest iPhone launch, but its price tag and limited supply could be drawbacks China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday unveiled the world’s first tri-foldable phone, as it seeks to expand its lead in the world’s biggest smartphone market and steal the spotlight from Apple Inc hours after it debuted a new iPhone. The Chinese tech giant showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways like an accordion screen door, during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. The Mate XT comes in red and black and has a 10.2-inch display screen. At 3.6mm thick, it is the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone, Huawei said. The company’s Web site showed that it has garnered more than
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and Episil Technologies Inc (漢磊) yesterday announced plans to jointly build an 8-inch fab to produce silicon carbide (SiC) chips through an equity acquisition deal. SiC chips offer higher efficiency and lower energy loss than pure silicon chips, and they are able to operate at higher temperatures. They have become crucial to the development of electric vehicles, artificial intelligence data centers, green energy storage and industrial devices. Vanguard, a contract chipmaker focused on making power management chips and driver ICs for displays, is to acquire a 13 percent stake in Episil for NT$2.48 billion (US$77.1 million).
RSS