TAIPEI: Catcher Technology Co , which supplies metal casings for Apple Inc’s iPhone models, reported net income of NT$17.87 billion (US$568.47 million) for last year, or NT$23.52 per share, a record high for the company here the other day.
The annual figure jumped 29.5 percent from the previous year’s NT$13.8 billion, Catcher said.
The average gross margin last year also increased 4.8 percentage points to 47.2 percent from the previous year’s 42.4 percent, due to growing revenues and an improving yield rate, company spokesman James Wu told a teleconference.
“The increasing orders for Smartphone and notebook products boosted the company’s profitability last year,” Wu said.
Catcher chairman Allen Horng said he expects last year’s strong growth momentum to extend through the whole year of this year.
This quarter’s revenue will be slightly down from the last quarter’s NT$17.01 billion, but it will be more than the market consensus’ NT$15.1 billion, Horng said.
“The market’s estimation is too conservative because we already made NT$10.46 billion in the first two months of this quarter,” Horng said, adding that he foresees sales this month outperforming January’s NT$5.96 billion.
In view of the client’s strong shipment demand for next quarter, Catcher’s revenue for next quarter might outpace the market’s consensus of NT$16.8 billion, Horng said.
Metal casings for notebook products accounted for 30 percent of the company’s total revenue last year, while those for tablet and smartphone products took the remaining 70 percent share, the company said.
“Thanks to robust demand for smartphone metal casings, we foresee the contribution from smartphones continuing to drive growth this year,” Horng said.
Although growth momentum of the notebook computer industry is slowing down worldwide, Catcher’s notebook client continues to place more orders with the company, Horng said.
Even so, the notebook segment would account for less than 30 percent of the company’s overall revenue this year, compared with the increasing contributions from the smartphone segment, he added.
With rising revenue and ample cash in hand, the company’s capital expenditure this year is likely to grow by more than last year’s NT$20.2 billion, as Catcher aims to meet clients’ strong demand, Horng said.
Wu said the company’s board has approved NT$3.3 billion in capital spending so far this year and Catcher has earmarked more than NT$2 billion on expanding production capacity.
“This year will be a very good year for Catcher. Investors need not doubt our growth potential,” Horng said.
Catcher shares rose 3.06 percent to NT$303 yesterday in Taipei trading, outperforming the TAIEX, which increased 0.86 percent.
