Inventec Appliances Corp (英華達), one of Taiwan's leading mobile phone brands, said yesterday that GSM handset sales would jump 50 percent next year, after tapping into the fast-growing Chinese market.
Handset sales in China would double next year after Inventec Appliances obtained Beijing's approval to sell own-brand phones in the world's most populous nation in May, company president Daniel Lee (李家恩) told the Taipei Times on the sidelines of a press conference.
"Obtaining the license will help us expand in the Chinese market," Lee said.
Inventec Appliances, a handheld devices manufacturing unit of the world's No.4 contracted notebook computer maker Inventec Co (英業達), yesterday briefed institutional investors of the company's outlook ahead of a public listing on the Taiwan Stock Exchange next Tuesday.
The company aims to sell 3 million GSM cellular phones under the brand of OKWAP in China and Taiwan in 2006, up from 2 million-unit estimate for this year, Lee said.
Inventec Appliances said it will raise NT$2.48 billion by listing 23 million shares priced at NT$108 a share on the main bourse.
Lee said the forecast was very conservative due to stiff competition.
"It's a challenge to do handset business there as Inventec Appliances is sandwiched between global first-tier brands and Chinese white brands," he said.
Inventec Appliances also offers branded PHS handsets in China and makes such phones on contract base. Lee expected own-brand PHS sales to remain flat at 2 million units next year.
Branded handset business only accounts for 10 percent of Inventec Appliances' total sales, while a bulky 70 percent of its sales comes from making digital music players, or MP3, on contract basis, the company said.
Inventec Appliances recently landed orders from Apple Computer Inc to make the latest iPod product enabling video function for the world's biggest MP3 brand. The company said its partnership with Apple Computer started in 1993.
Sales jumped 70 percent to NT$72 billion in the first three quarters, compared to the same period last year. In the first half of 2005, the company earned NT$1.36 billion, or NT$4.4 a share, Lee said.
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