Soft-World most profitable software developer in Taiwan

Taipei, Nov. 3, 2003 (CENS)--Soft-World International Corp. posted NT$588 million (US$17.34 million at US$1:NT$33.9) in pretax earnings and NT$7.11 (US$0.2) in earnings per share in the first three quarters of this year, becoming the most profitable among Taiwan's listed software developers.

Cyberlink Corp. scored NT$5.23 (US$0.15) in EPS for the first three quarters of this year; SpringSoft, Inc. recorded an EPS of NT$3.3 (US$0.09) with gross profit rate running as high as 96.3%.

Soft-World attributed its high profitability to the increased number of subscribers to its online games. The company has boasted 700,000 online Chinese subscribers so far.

Concentrating on distribution business, Soft-World recorded a gross profit rate of 22%. A majority of the company's profits are contributed by such subsidiaries as Chinesegamer International Corp. and Game Flier International Corp.

Chinesegamer, in which Soft-World has a 53% stake, posted pretax profit of NT$402 million (US$11.85 million) in the first three quarters. Game Flier, a wholly-owned affiliate of Soft-World, scored NT$225 million (US$6.63 million) in pretax earnings for the same period. In total, Soft-World reaped NT$438 million in revenue from these two re-invested firms in the first three quarters.

Soft-World expects to score more non-operating income in the fourth quarter of this year because it will release three million shares of Chinesegamer to facilitate the latter's listing on the GreTai Securities Market sometime in December. Chinesegamer currently is capitalized at NT$621 million (US$18.31 million).

Trading at around NT$120 (US$3.53) per share on the Emerging Market, Chinesegamer is expected to list its shares at a three-digit price.

Thanks to the contribution of the profitable subsidiaries, Soft-World will challenge NT$1 billion (US$29.49 million) in pretax earnings this year, higher than the earlier-projected NT$784 million (US$23.12 million).

Cyberlink, a leading developer of audio/video multimedia software, said it has seen profits grow over the past few months because of the influx of orders for DVD (digital versatile disc) player and editing software. The company scored NT$382 million (US$11.26 million) and NT$5.23 (0.15) in pretax earnings and EPS, respectively, in the first three quarters.

With a profit rate of 56.1%, SpringSoft posted NT$401 million (US$11.82 million) and NT$3.3 (US$0.09) in pretax earnings and EPS, respectively.

The company has recently obtained orders from Taiwan Semiconductor Mfg. Co. for semiconductor automation tool dubbed LakerT1. More recently, the company's LakerT1 has won the certification from Japan-based ASPLA (Advanced SoC Platform Corp.), an alliance comprising 10 semiconductor manufacturers in developing system-on-chip technology. The company said the acquisition of the ASPLA certification will help it secure continued sales growth in the next few months.