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.
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