Flat-panel display supplier AUO Corp’s (友達) losses last quarter narrowed to NT$3.53 billion (US$108.48 million) from NT$10.91 billion a year earlier, thanks to restocking demand from TV vendors in preparation for major global sports events such as the Paris Olympics and UEFA Euro 2024 in the second half of the year.
However, the Hsinchu-based company’s losses increased from NT$1.51 billion in the fourth quarter of last year. That translated into losses per share of NT$0.46 last quarter, an improvement from losses of NT$1.42 a year earlier, but worse than losses per share of NT$0.2 a quarter earlier.
Operating losses last quarter improved to NT$4.94 billion from NT$5.07 billion a quarter earlier and NT$11.14 billion a year earlier.
Photo: Chen Mei-ying, Taipei Times
“We maintain our outlook for this year. The first quarter was the bottom,” AUO chairman Paul Peng (彭?浪) told a virtual investors’ conference yesterday. “Businesses are returning to the normal seasonal cycles.”
AUO expects a gradual recovery each quarter for the remainder of the year, first thanks to a boost from TV vendors who last quarter began restocking for the high season, Peng said.
The introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) PCs from the middle of this year would fuel new growth momentum, he added.
As a result, shipments this quarter would increase by a low-to-mid-single-digit percentage sequentially, AUO said, adding that average selling prices would grow by a low-single-digit percentage quarter-on-quarter.
Aside from an improvement in its core flat-panel display business, AUO expects revenue from total solutions for automotive and other vertical industries to increase this quarter, following its acquisition of Behr-Hella Thermocontrol GmbH (BHTC), a German supplier of auto cockpit components, for 600 million euros (US$643.7 million).
Revenue from AUO’s non-display business, or the total solutions for vertical industries, would make up 20 percent of total revenue this quarter, Peng said.
In the long run, the firm aims to boost its revenue contribution from automotive solutions — mostly smart cockpits — to 25 percent, AUO chief executive Frank Ko (柯富仁) told investors.
Last year, automotive business made up about 17 percent of the company’s total revenue, it said.
Excluding BHTC, AUO expects its automotive business revenue to increase by a double-digit percentage to more than NT$50 billion this year from NT$44 billion last year, maintaining a similar pace of growth to what it has experienced since 2022, Ko said.
A greater revenue contribution from auto parts would be crucial for AUO to mitigate the volatility of its profitability caused by the boom-and-bust nature of the display industry, Ko said.
Auto components tend to have a longer order visibility and deliver stable profits, Ko said.
AUO said it is making good progress on commercializing its microLED technology, which is considered cost-efficient and should enable local display companies to compete with OLED technology, which is dominated by South Korean firms.
The company said it expects to see microLED displays used in large TVs and vehicle displays in the next two or three years.
AUO began shipping microLED displays for smart watches at the end of last year and expects volume to grow this year.
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