Contract electronics manufacturer Inventec Corp (英業達) on Tuesday posted its best profit in 13 quarters as its revenue surged and operating margin held steady.
The company, which produces notebook computers, servers and smart devices for brand clients, reported net profit of NT$2.37 billion (US$71.9 million) in the fourth quarter of last year, up 18.68 percent from the previous quarter.
Profit was up 19.28 percent year-on-year, Inventec said in a regulatory filing.
Photo: Fang Wei-chieh, Taipei Times
Revenue in the quarter increased 21 percent quarterly and 54 percent annually to NT$197.78 billion, and gross margin declined to 5.1 percent, but operating margin improved to 2 percent, company data showed.
Earnings per share (EPS) were NT$0.66 last quarter, the highest since the third quarter of 2021, when the company made NT$0.78 per share.
For this quarter, Inventec expects shipments of notebook computers, servers and wearable devices to be lower than last quarter due to weak seasonal demand.
However, judging from order visibility, the company expects the sequential decline to be less than expected and is positive about increasing shipments in the following quarters, although the global consequences of new US trade policies warrant further observation, it said.
For the whole of last year, Inventec reported net profit of NT$7.27 billion, up 18.53 percent from 2023.
EPS stood at NT$2.03, up from NT$1.71 the previous year.
Full-year revenue increased 26 percent to a record of NT$646.26 billion, gross margin rose 0.1 percentage points to 5.2 percent, the highest in seven years, and operating margin grew 0.4 percentage points to 1.8 percent, the company said.
Inventec’s board of directors on Tuesday proposed distributing a cash dividend of NT$1.7 per share, the company said in a separate regulatory filing.
If approved by shareholders on May 28, the planned cash dividend would represent a payout ratio of 83.74 percent.
Inventec said the board also proposed investing US$539.5 billion in Thailand to renovate plants, and install new equipment on server and laptop production lines.
The company has continued to improve its non-China production capacity in the past few years, aiming to ship goods and components to the US from its manufacturing bases in Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand and Mexico.
Inventec has set up manufacturing bases for automotive electronics in Vietnam and Mexico, production facilities for wearable devices in Malaysia and Vietnam, notebook computer assembly lines in Thailand and Vietnam, and server plants in Taiwan, Mexico and Thailand.
In the wake of new trade policies unveiled by US President Donald Trump, the company was looking for sites in Texas to produce high-end servers, Inventec management said at a corporate event in January, citing the state’s adequate power supply and its proximity to Mexico.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to