TAIPEI: Leading LED lighting supplier Everlight Electronics Co said it expects sales next quarter to pick up after a relatively weak performance this quarter due to soft demand for backlight units.
“On the back of the improving demand for backlight units, we foresee revenues next quarter growing from this quarter,” Everlight chairman Robert Yeh told reporters on the sidelines of the company’s annual general meeting.
Everlight saw a 15.39 percent annual decline in revenue to NT$2.2 billion (US$70.38 million) last month, with cumulative revenue for the first five months of this year rising 4.26 percent to NT$11.87 billion from the same period last year.
Yeh declined to offer an estimate for quarterly revenue growth for next quarter.
The company reported a net income of NT$560.78 million in the first quarter, or NT$1.31 per share.
Yeh said an emerging LED supply-chain localization in China would affect Everlight’s performance and the industry as a whole.
While Chinese competitors’ low-priced products might temporarily influence the market, the effectiveness of this strategy would not last long, he said.
“Companies with strength and competitiveness will eventually perform better,” Yeh said.
Commenting on the company’s business outlook for the second half of the year, Yeh said Everlight has received many orders from Europe, Japan, South Korea and China, and that the company has started shipping products to its clients.
He also said recent court rulings in both the US and Germany that found Japan’s Nichia Corp patents to be invalid would enable Everlight to move forward with its LED development and manufacturing free from legal ties.
“This is good news for us and for our clients,” Yeh said.
Yeh said the company plans to invest NT$10 billion in building a new plant in Miaoli County this year, mainly for manufacturing automotive LED applications and products for security monitoring systems.
He said it would also continue investing in ultraviolet and infrared LED lighting this year, as well as developing Bluetooth or WiFi-connected LED lighting products as the popularity of the Internet of Things grows.
At the meeting, shareholders approved the company’s plan to distribute a cash dividend of NT$4 per share, based on net income of NT$2.17 billion last year, or NT$5.12 per share.
The dividend payment represents a yield of 6.6 percent on yesterday’s closing share price of NT$60.6.
