Optical film packaging and CMOS image sensor (CIS) manufacturer VisEra Technologies Co (采鈺) yesterday said revenue in the first half of this year would be flat from the same period last year.
That comes as the company expects its image sensor business to remain robust in the first half thanks to the launch of new smartphone models and electric vehicle makers upgrading self-driving technology, although its sales of micro-optical elements would face more competition from rivals, VisEra said in an online earnings conference.
The company, created in 2003 as a spin-off from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) with investment from image sensor partners, expects revenue growth to gradually pick up steam in the second half of the year on the back of seasonal demand, it said.
Photo: Grace Hung, Taipei Times
The image sensor business accounted for 71 percent of VisEra’s revenue last quarter, while micro-optical elements made up 27 percent, company data showed.
Revenue this quarter would be lower than last quarter, as the smartphone industry has entered a slow season and national holidays cut short the number of business days, but it would still be better than the first quarter last year, VisEra chairman Robert Kuan (關欣) said.
Kuan’s remarks came after the company reported that revenue increased 43.09 percent to NT$2.69 billion (US$82 million) year-on-year last quarter from NT$1.88 billion.
On a quarterly basis, fourth-quarter revenue fell 2.18 percent from NT$2.75 billion, the company said, attributing the better-than-normal seasonal decline to customers’ stocking demand ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday and completing inventory adjustments by the end of the year.
Gross margin was 33.9 percent last quarter, down from 36.1 percent in the previous quarter, but up from 11.5 percent a year earlier, which VisEra said was primarily driven by an improved product mix and a better capacity utilization rate.
Net profit was NT$557 million and earnings per share came in at NT$1.76 last quarter, representing a fall of 3 percent from the previous quarter, but a 1,500 percent surge year-on-year, company data showed.
For the whole of last year, revenue rose 38.2 percent year-on-year to NT$10.02 billion, gross margin improved 13.7 percentage points to 30.5 percent and net profit jumped to NT$1.74 billion from NT$356 million. Earnings per share were NT$5.49, up from NT$1.13 the previous year, company data showed.
Kuan said the company’s CIS production capacity was fully loaded last year as a new plant in Taoyuan’s Longtan District (龍潭) only came on board in the second half of the year.
The company expects annual CIS output this year to be higher than last year’s level, he said.
“We expect to see an increase in high-end CIS. For example, the proportion of automotive CIS would increase this year, along with relatively good prices,” Kuan said.
“In addition, mass production of new image sensors in the second half of the year is also an opportunity to increase revenue,” he said.
VisEra plans to earmark between US$70 million and US$90 million for capital expenditure this year, higher than last year’s US$37 million, as the company aims to improve process technology, purchase new equipment, and beef up its research and development, Kuan said.
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