Sampo wins big-ticket PDP, LCD TV order from GE

Taipei, May 10, 2004 (CENS)--Sampo Corp., a leading electronic and home appliance maker in Taiwan, recently won a big-ticket order for plasma display panel (PDP) and liquid crystal display (LCD) TVs from GE of the U.S.

The GE order is expected to bring an additional revenue of over US$100 million to Sampo, which is scheduled to begin fill the order in July.

Sampo recently also won an order for about 60,000 LCD TVs from a major home appliance brand in Japan and will begin to make delivery next month.

Sampo vice chairman Eric Chen and general manager and CEO H. C. Ho confirmed the GE order, saying that that Sampo Chairman Felix Chen is finalizing the business with GE officials at Sampo's production base in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province, mainland China, which is run by subsidiary Sampo Technology Corp.

Ho claimed that the two recent deals have proven that the designs and quality of his company's PDP and LCD TV products are well recognized by big international customers in the U.S. and Japan.

GE is already a major original equipment manufacturing (OEM) customer to Sampo, which has conducted contract production of some white-appliance products to the American customer for many years. Sampo recently won a contract order for 40,000 500-litter refrigerators from GE, and its mainland plant in Tianjin is expected to export about 500,000 refrigerators this year.

Sampo currently supplies PDP TV in two sizes, including 42- and 50-inch models. The company shipped about 100,000 PDP TVs on an OEM basis last year, making it one of the top-three contract suppliers in this segment. Sampo expects to deliver about 200,000 PDP TVs this year.

In Taiwan, Sampo sold about 6,600 PDP TVs in the first quarter and expects to sell about 25,000 units this year, which will account for about 60% of the local market.

Ho claimed that Sampo would concentrate on promoting its quality and brand images, achieving the goal of becoming a leading EMS (electronics manufacturing services, or CEM-- contract electronics manufacturing) provider, further strengthening its supply chain integration, and more actively striving to form strategic alliances with foreign home appliance brands this year. The CEO added that Sampo aims to become an information technology (IT) home appliance conglomerate with comprehensive digital and home appliance products.

Sampo aims to export about one million units of the "white-appliances" (including refrigerators, air conditioners, dehumidifiers and washing machines), and over one million units of the "black-appliances" (including PDP TV, LCD TVs, digital versatile disc (DVD)+rewritable players, and cathode-ray tube TVs etc.) this year.

At Sampo's recent shareholder meeting, the company decided to distribute a cash dividend of NT$0.5 (US$0.02 at US$1: NT$33.3) and stock dovidend of NT$0.5 (US$US$0.02) for last year's operation.

Sampo reported consolidated 2003 revenue of NT$24.04 billion (US$728.61 million). The company's OEM production ratio grew to about 60% last year and is expected to reach 65% this year.

Sampo vice chairman Chen claimed that his company would form a strategic alliance with Uni-Circuit Inc. in multi-layer printed circuit board (PCB) production and utilize Uni-Circuit's plant in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, mainland China to supply the needed PCBs used in Sampo's products.