Shoemaker Pou Chen Corp (寶成工業) on Friday reported net profit of NT$4.64 billion (US$155.67 million) in the first quarter of the year, down 26.1 percent from a year earlier, but still the second-highest net profit for the period in the company’s history.
The world’s largest contract maker of branded athletic and casual footwear also has investments in retailing and land development, as well as in financial services providers such as Nan Shan Life Insurance Co (南山人壽).
Pou Chen said the lower profit was largely due to fewer investment gains from Nan Shan, compared with a year earlier. The company booked NT$2.63 billion in investment gains from Nan Shan for the first quarter, down from the NT$4.69 billion it booked over the same period last year, it said in a statement.
Photo: Hung Mei-hsiu, Taipei Times
As the company’s non-operating profit also declined by 28.2 percent year-on-year to NT$4.19 billion in the quarter from January to March, its earnings per share were NT$1.57, down from NT$2.13 a year earlier, the company’s financial report showed.
Gross margin was 24.1 percent, down from 25.7 percent a year ago, while operating margin dropped to 3.8 percent, from 4.8 percent, the report showed.
First-quarter revenue decreased 5.1 percent year-on-year to NT$67.26 billion, as its retail business in shoes and sports products was negatively affected by COVID-19 flareups in China, despite steady improvement in its shoemaking operations, Pou Chen said.
The company’s original equipment manufacturing (OEM) shoe business generated sales of NT$42.88 billion in the first quarter, up 10.7 percent year-on-year on the back of rising shipments and higher product prices, it said.
The company shipped about 70.9 million pairs of shoes last quarter, an annual increase of 3.8 percent, while average selling prices were US$19.65 per pair, higher than the US$17.79 a year earlier, it said.
The OEM shoe business for international brands such as Nike Inc, Adidas AG, Asics Corp, New Balance Athletic Shoe Inc, Timberland Co and Salomon SAS made up 63.8 percent of the firm’s total revenue last quarter, it said.
The majority of Pou Chen’s shoe production is in Vietnam, Indonesia and China, accounting for 35 percent, 49 percent and 10 percent respectively of the company’s total production last quarter.
Its retail business — operated by Hong Kong-listed subsidiary Pou Sheng International Ltd (寶勝國際) — saw sales decrease by 24.5 percent from the previous year to NT$24.14 billion, due to strict COVID-19 restrictions in China, Pou Chen said.
The retail business comprised 35.9 percent of Pou Chen’s revenue last quarter, it said.
As of the end of the first quarter, Pou Sheng operated 8,186 stores, compared with 8,417 a year earlier, Pou Chen said.
With an approval rating of just two percent, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte might be the world’s most unpopular leader, according to pollsters. Protests greeted her rise to power 29 months ago, and have marked her entire term — joined by assorted scandals, investigations, controversies and a surge in gang violence. The 63-year-old is the target of a dozen probes, including for her alleged failure to declare gifts of luxury jewels and watches, a scandal inevitably dubbed “Rolexgate.” She is also under the microscope for a two-week undeclared absence for nose surgery — which she insists was medical, not cosmetic — and is
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
CHIP DUTIES: TSMC said it voiced its concerns to Washington about tariffs, telling the US commerce department that it wants ‘fair treatment’ to protect its competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reiterated robust business prospects for this year as strong artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from Nvidia Corp and other customers would absorb the impacts of US tariffs. “The impact of tariffs would be indirect, as the custom tax is the importers’ responsibility, not the exporters,” TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at the chipmaker’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Hsinchu City. TSMC’s business could be affected if people become reluctant to buy electronics due to inflated prices, Wei said. In addition, the chipmaker has voiced its concern to the US Department of Commerce
RSS