Electronics manufacturer Qisda Corp (佳世達) yesterday projected that the first quarter would be its weakest quarter, but that revenue would gradually pick up the rest of the year, aided by improving supply-demand dynamics in the electronics business and robust growth from higher-margin businesses such as healthcare.
The downtrend last quarter would extend into this quarter, with revenue expected to dip on an annual basis, as demand for electronics — monitors in particular — remained gloomy, Qisda said.
Surging inflation and the Russia-Ukraine war took a toll on consumers’ purchasing power, it said.
Photo: CNA
An annual decline of 18 percent in revenue during the first two months of this year provided a clue, the company said.
“We hope the performance in the remaining months of this year would catch up and fill the gap,” Qisda chairman Peter Chen (陳其宏) told a media briefing. “The improvement would be quarter by quarter.”
Qisda last quarter improved its inventory for a third straight quarter to NT$43.9 billion (US$1.43 billion), paving the way for a rebound in the first half of this year, it said.
For this year, Qisda still expects revenue to grow and surpass its record of NT$239.8 billion last year, following the growth pattern over the past five years, Chen said.
Qisda attributed last year’s revenue growth of 6 percent to resilient demand for high value-added and higher margin devices and services, which accounted for about 45 percent of its overall revenue.
Healthcare devices and services grew the fastest last year, followed by networking and artificial-Internet-of-Things businesses.
Qisda has seen patients flow back to its hospitals in China, as COVID-19 restrictions were eased in the country, Chen said.
To take advantage of the growth opportunities, the board of directors has approved a new capital injection of US$235 million to support the expansion of hospitals.
The company has set a goal of growing net profit by boosting contributions from high value-added products and services, focusing on those that offer gross margins of more than 20 percent, to about half of its overall net profit in the next few years to 2027.
Qisda said it has also tapped into new businesses with strong growth potential, such as low earth orbit satellites and drone businesses.
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