Quanta net rises to record on sales

Third-quarter net income climbed 36 percent to NT$5.24 billion, or NT$1.51 per share, from NT$3.86 billion, or NT$1.15, a year earlier, the Taoyuan, Taiwan based company said yesterday. Quanta was expected to post a profit of NT$4.49 billion, according to the average of seven analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

The company, whose customers include Acer Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co., reported its highest quarterly shipments in the three months through September as mobile-computer sales in the U.S. outpaced desktops for the first time. Laptops will continue to gain share this quarter, with consumers opting for more mobility, according to researcher Gartner Inc.

“We have seen unusually strong mobile PC growth in the emerging regions,” Gartner analyst Mikako Kitagawa said in an e- mail. Shipments in Asia-Pacific grew 23.4 percent in the third quarter, according to an Oct. 18 press release from Gartner.

Quanta’s third-quarter sales climbed to NT$210.3 billion from NT$109.9 billion a year earlier. The company’s shares fell 0.9 percent to NT$54.5 yesterday, extending to 5.9 percent its decline this year, compared with the 25 percent gain in the benchmark Taiex index.

The computer maker’s notebook shipments rose 19 percent from the previous quarter to 8.8 million, outpacing the company’s Aug. 31 guidance for growth of 15 percent. Quanta forecast shipments of 30 million notebooks this year, and predicted that in 2008 they would rise 20 percent to 36 million.

Mobile computers accounted for 40.8 percent of worldwide shipments in the third quarter, up from 38.3 percent in the second, and will probably rise to 42.8 percent this quarter, according to estimates by Gartner.

The overall market rose 14.4 percent from a year earlier to 68.5 million computers, led by Acer and Hewlett-Packard, which posted the strongest growth. Acer, the world’s fourth-largest computer supplier, last week reported a 29 percent gain in third- quarter sales.

Quanta’s gross margin, which measures sales minus the cost of goods sold, narrowed to 3.4 percent at the parent level excluding affiliates, from 5.1 percent a year earlier, the company said.

The company may invest next year in Chinese or Taiwanese component suppliers to cut costs and boost efficiency, Vice Chairman C.C. Leung said today in Taoyuan. Quanta is considering investments in suppliers of mechanical parts used in notebooks, he said, without providing details.

“It’s a good thing that Quanta is trying to integrate with suppliers as notebook makers’ profit margins are falling,” said David Dong, who helps oversee the equivalent of US$1.7 billion for President Investment Trust Corp. in Taipei and who doesn’t own Quanta stock.

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