console, said fourth-quarter profit increased 9.3 percent after a tax gain. The company forecast sales will rise, sending the shares higher. Net income climbed to US$5.9 million, or 1 cent per American depositary receipt, including a tax benefit of US$14.6 million, the company said Friday. Sales gained 4 percent to US$356.2 million.
Revenue this quarter may rise as much as 15 percent on demand for semiconductors used in high-speed mobile phones, said Chartered, whose customers include Texas Instruments Inc., the world's biggest maker of handset chips. The Singapore-based company also expects sales from computer-chip maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. to increase in the second half.
"Chips used in high-end smart phones like those in Texas Instruments are picking up in demand and they have one of the highest selling prices," said Carey Wong, an analyst at OCBC Investment Research in Singapore, who rates Chartered shares a "hold."
Chartered climbed 7.8 percent to 83 Singapore cents at the end of Singapore trading, its biggest one-day gain since Sept. 17, 2003. The Straits Times Index rose 0.9 percent Friday.
First-quarter results may range from a net loss of US$5 million to profit of US$5 million, Chartered said. Profit was US$5.34 million a year earlier.
Sales in the three months ending March 31 will probably range from US$361 million to US$373 million, rising from US$323.8 million, the company said.
Steven Pelayo, a Hong Kong-based analyst at HSBC Holdings Plc., had forecast first-quarter sales to fall to US$307.8 million, before the company provided the outlook. He has an "underweight" rating on Chartered.
The fourth-quarter profit was the same as the median estimate of six analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
Communications chips were the biggest sales contributor, accounting for 47 percent of fourth-quarter revenue, rising from 28 percent a year earlier.
"We see strength in mobile communication chips," Chief Executive Officer Chia Song Hwee said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.
Dallas-based Texas Instruments on Jan. 22 forecast earnings for this quarter that surpassed some analysts' estimates and said it sees no signs a U.S. economic slowdown is affecting chip demand.
