Compal Leads World as Most Profitable NB Contract Manufacturer
2010/05/14 | By Ben ShenTaipei, May 14, 2010 (CENS)--Compal Electronics Inc., one of Taiwan's leading contract manufacturers of notebook PCs, scored US$0.064 in earnings per share (EPS) in the first quarter of this year, for a historic-high to become the world's most profitable NB contract manufacturer.
Compal saw first-quarter EPS double from a year earlier, breaking institutional investors' expectations. The company will likely be able to raise annual shipments from earlier projected 48 million units to 55 million units of NBs this year, compared with over 50 million NBs expected for its archrival Quanta Computer Inc.
At an institutional investors presentation, Quanta Computer president and CEO Ray Chen said his company will see EPS dip slightly in the second quarter of this year from the preceding one, with whole-year gross profit margin guaranteed at over 4%.
Compal shipped 12.5 million NBs in the first quarter of this year, outstripping Quanta's 11 million.
Chen noted Compal will not see improving shipment of NBs in the second quarter from the preceding one, and a 5% to 10% quarter-over-quarter growth will be achieved in the third quarter.
An institutional investor predicted Compal will likely ship 25 million NBs in the first half of this year to compete head-on against Quanta in 2010 shipments.
Non-core businesses have helped Compal register US$291.7 million in pretax earnings in the first quarter of this year, up a whopping 186% year-on-year and up 27% from the preceding quarter. The company posted US$268.61 million in after-tax earnings in the first quarter, up 204% from a year earlier and up 6% from the preceding quarter.