Premier hit record-high sales for seven straight months

Taipei, Dec. 11, 2003 (CENS)--Premier Image Technology Corp., one of Taiwan's leading manufacturers of digital still cameras scored revenue of NT$2.989 billion (US$87.91 million at US$1:NT$34) in November, hitting a new monthly high for the seventh consecutive month.

The company had cumulative sales of NT$21.7 billion (US$638.23 million) in the first 11 months of this year, reaching 109% of its annual revenue projection of NT$20 billion (US$588.23 million). The company anticipated its overall sales to top NT$24 billion (US$705.88 million) this year.

Premier recently projected it would rake in pretax earnings of NT$2 billion (US$58.82 million) or NT$4 (US$0.11) per share this year.

The projection is made by Premier president Liu Teng-kuei. He said the projected overall earnings have surpassed the firm's full-year profit goal set earlier. Based on the financial projection, the company would see its combined earnings for this year and next reach the same amount as its current paid-in capital of NT$5.1 billion (US$150 million).

Liu formerly predicted his company would see sales peak in the third quarter of this year. But the company said it would see fourth-quarter sales outperform the third-quarter revenue.

The company said its sales growth so far this year was fueled by the growing shipment of digital still cameras. Having shipped 4.1 million digital still cameras in the first 11 months of the year, the firm expected to record full-year shipment of 4.5 million units. The company predicted its shipment to exceed six million units next year, up 50% from this year's projected amount.

Liu holds a very optimistic view about the prospective development of his company. He said his company currently sees 60% of total revenue coming from digital still cameras, 10% from camera-embedded cell phone modules, and the remainder from mechanical parts.

Premier said it has outpaced domestic and Japanese rivals in shipment of high-tier digital still cameras. At present, over four million-pixel digital cameras command 40% of its total shipment. The company predicted it would deliver close to three million such cameras next year.

Thanks to the continual growth in shipment of high-tier digital camera, Premier would see sales top NT$35 billion (US$1.02 billion) next year, up 40% from this year's projected level.

Concentrating on high-tier digital cameras, Premier has seen operating profit rate surge quarter by quarter this year. Focusing on three million-pixel models in the first half of this year, the company has shifted to the more profitable four million-pixels ones in the second half.

The company boasted it would begin delivering six million-pixel cameras in February next year and begin mass production sometime in the second half of next year.

Liu said his company projects to deliver 15 million camera-embedded cell phone modules next year, compared to this year's projection of three million to four million units. The company boasted it has received orders for the camera-embedded cell phone modules from three clients worldwide.