TAIPEI: Delta Electronics Inc, the nation’s top power supply unit maker, reported a lower-than-expected net income of NT$3.86 billion (US$125.75 million) for the quarter ended last month, or NT$1.59 per share.
Profit for last quarter shrank by 15.53 percent from NT$4.57 billion in the same period last year and was 23 percent less than NT$5.02 billion in the previous quarter.
The results missed Daiwa Capital Markets Inc’s forecast of NT$4.51 billion, or NT$1.85 per share.
“The annual decline in profit was mainly due to a higher base last year — because of large shipments for game consoles’ power electronics — of which shipments this year were relatively flat,” Delta chairman Yancey Hai told an investors’ conference.
Revenue for power electronics, which accounted for 56 percent of Delta’s total sales, dropped 7 percent annually to NT$24.48 billion last quarter, Delta said.
Gross margin for last quarter was 26 percent, a decline of 0.6 percentage points from a year ago and 0.7 percentage points from the previous quarter, the company said.
Overall, the company’s consolidated sales increased slightly to NT$43.2 billion for the first three months of this year from the previous year’s NT$43 billion, but declined 13 percent from NT$49.5 billion in the previous quarter.
Daiwa Capital Markets analyst Christine Wang said the lower-than-expected revenue last quarter was due to weakness across all of the company’s businesses apart from industrial automation.
Hai said the company’s revenue this quarter is expected to grow from the last quarter and increase further next quarter on the back of growing orders of power supplies for communication devices, optical transceiver modules and industrial automation.
Sales contribution from power electronics for PCs, on the other hand, is expected to gradually decrease due to the weak demand in global market, Hai said.
Commenting on the firm’s industrial automation business, Hai said: “We previously planned to focus industrial automation business in Taiwan and China first, but it seems that the demand in Europe is satisfying as well, and we have expanded reach in the region.”
Delta’s reach in Europe could benefit from its recent acquisition of Norwegian telecom equipment power supply maker Eltek SAS, as the company said the acquisition is progressing two months sooner than expected. Hai said Delta would start to book revenue contributions from Eltek next month.
Daiwa forecast Delta’s revenue would grow by 20 percent to NT$51.87 billion this quarter from last quarter’s NT$43.2 billion, driven by the contribution from Eltek and strong orders for industrial automation.
Delta yesterday said its board had approved an increase to a cash dividend to NT$6.7 per share from NT$6, as the firm has sufficient cash in hand. The company posted net income of NT$22.31 billion last year, or earnings per share of NT$8.42.
That represents a payout ratio of 78.91 percent and a dividend yield of 3.44 percent, based on the company’s closing price of NT$194.5 in Taipei trading yesterday.
