High Tech Computer Corp (HTC, 宏達電), a maker of the world’s first Google phone based on the Android platform, reported yesterday that it met its forecast for its third quarter, but warned of tougher times ahead.
“Starting in the third quarter, we began to feel stress from the markets because of the recent deteriorating global economic situation. We took preemptive measures and kicked off our Operational Efficiency Program to address our cost structure, gain support from suppliers and enforce our sales targets at various regions,” HTC chief executive officer Peter Chou (周永明) said at an investor teleconference yesterday.
These measures have stabilized the company’s third quarter financial performance, and going into the fourth quarter and next year HTC has plans to leverage the company brand, build strategic partnerships and improve its customer services worldwide, Chou said.
“Despite HTC’s venture into the Android platform, our core competency still lies in the Windows Mobile platform,” Chou said yesterday. “G1 simply gave us an additional opportunity in the smartphone business.”
The fourth-quarter revenue was estimated to rise around to the mid-20 percent range year-on-year, translating to a total revenue of NT$48 billion (US$1.46 billion), the company projected.
Growth of the full-year revenue would be maintained at the company’s 29 percent forecast made earlier this year, chief financial officer and spokesperson Cheng Hui-ming (鄭慧明) said.
Cheng said that net profit would see a growth of between 20 percent and 22 percent year-on-year in the fourth quarter, but he gave no forecast for next year.
In the third quarter, profit after tax increased to NT$6.99 billion, up 5.6 percent from the second quarter and 25.9 percent compared with a year ago. Earnings per share came to NT$9.25 for the quarter, compared with last quarter’s NT$11.54.
Revenue was NT$37.86 billion, up 30.1 percent year-on-year and 9.4 percent quarter-on-quarter, while gross profit was NT$12.93, up 33 percent year-on-year and 8.2 percent quarter-on-quarter.
Operating expense was NT$5.67 billion in the third quarter because of employee bonus payouts, representing increases of 12.2 percent quarter-on-quarter and 38.3 percent year-on-year. The company expects operating expense to grow at 10 percent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier.
Operating expense ratio for the third quarter was 10.65 percent, an increase of 0.15 percent from last quarter's projections, because of a NT$146 million loss resulting from the bankruptcy of its maintenance partner in the US, NT$97 million from last year's employee bonus payment adjustment and NT$75 million in assets set aside for possible bad debt, Cheng said.
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