Acer Inc’s (宏碁) after-sales service subsidiary Highpoint Service Network Corp (海柏特) yesterday said it is targeting double-digit percentage growth in revenue next year on the back of strong demand for payment devices.
The company also expects this year’s revenue to surpass last year’s NT$1.2 billion (US$38.3 million), which grew 32 percent year-on-year, Highpoint chairman Andrew Hou (侯知遠) said at a presentation in Taipei ahead of its over-the-counter market debut next month.
Highpoint has maintained double-digit revenue growth over the past three years, Hou said, adding that achieving similar growth this year “should not be a problem.”
Photo: Ou Yu-hsiang, Taipei Times
The company provides after-sales services for electronic devices and information technology products, authorized by original equipment manufacturers.
It has secured orders from two of the world’s top five payment gateway device makers, and winning another contract could further boost sales next year, Hou said.
Next year’s momentum is also expected to come from an upgrade cycle for payment gateway equipment — such as all-in-one terminals that integrate QR code and contactless payments — in Taiwanese and Southeast Asian markets, and planned expansion into other markets, he said.
Apart from after-sales services, Highpoint also offers value-added services for enterprise clients, such as installing tech equipment, and charging for after-sales services and hardware sales, company chief executive officer Jacky Lin (林俊男) said.
After-sales services carry a gross margin of about 20 percent, while value-added services have a margin of about 10 percent as the segment includes low-margin hardware sales, he said.
The company’s revenue in the first three quarters of this year totaled NT$846 million, down 4.4 percent from a year earlier, as its value-added services were affected by enterprises’ delays in capital expenditure, he said.
Overseas markets accounted for 70 to 80 percent of Highpoint’s revenue this year, the company said.
Gross margin during the period was 21.89 percent, rising 4 percentage points in the same period last year, as the company expanded its after-sales services business, Lin said.
Highpoint has operations in Taiwan, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines, with annual revenue growth in these markets reaching at least 10 percent, with some exceeding 30 percent, Hou said.
The company is evaluating whether to expand into India and China, as India’s infrastructure and policy procedures are relatively complicated, while the Chinese market is highly competitive, he added.
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