Liquid-crystal display and projector manufacturer Qisda Co (佳世達) yesterday said second-quarter revenue is expected to be better than the first quarter, which rose 6 percent year-on-year to NT$49.75 billion (US$1.64 billion).
However, the outlook remains uncertain, as shipments could be affected by the outcome of US trade talks, the end of the 90-day tariff pause on July 8, a stronger New Taiwan dollar and geopolitical tensions such as tensions between India and Pakistan, Qisda chairman Peter Chen (陳其宏) said at an online earnings conference.
“We will strive to maintain the revenue growth in the second quarter,” Chen said.
Photo: Chen Mei-ying, Taipei Times
Regarding the potential impact of US tariff uncertainty, Qisda president Joe Huang (黃漢州) said the company is considering building new factories in countries with lower US tariffs such as Mexico, and might relocate its artificial intelligence or industrial production lines to the US.
Qisda has small processing plants in California and would use them as a base to expand local operations, Huang said, adding that the company might seek another site if orders exceed the existing plants’ capacity.
To cope with the recent NT dollar surge, the company is adopting a natural hedging strategy to ease potential risks, while using foreign exchange forward contracts as alternative buffers, Qisda chief financial officer Jasmin Hung (洪秋金) said.
The rapid appreciation of the NT dollar is likely to affect revenue in key business sectors in the coming months, but at the same time some of the company’s more than 200 global operations using various currencies could benefit from the currency fluctuations, she said.
Qisda’s net profit in the first quarter reached NT$594 million, up 50 percent from a year earlier, with earnings per share at NT$0.25.
Gross margin rose 1.3 percentage points year-on-year to 17.3 percent — its highest ever — driven by optimized product and business mix, while operating margin was flat at 2 percent, the company said.
By sector, information and communications technology (ICT) revenue rose 7 percent year-on-year to NT$27 billion in the first quarter, followed by business solutions at NT$8.1 billion, medical applications at NT$7.2 billion, networking and communications business at NT$4.5 billion, and others at NT$3 billion, Qisda said.
The medical sector showed strong growth potential, accounting for 14 percent of total revenue and ranking second among the company’s high-value-added sectors, while networking and communications contributed only 9 percent due to industry contraction, Chen said.
The medical sector would be Qisda’s main growth driver this year, and the company plans to expand its investments in the field to differentiate itself from other ICT rivals, he said.
Revenue from the US accounted for 26 percent of Qisda’s total, but just 1 percent of its medical sector revenue, leaving room to adjust its strategy for revenue and profit growth in the coming quarters as the sector is less affected by tariff uncertainty, he said.
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