The subsidiaries of Walsin Lihwa Corp., including Global Brands Manufacture (GBM), HannStar Board, Info-Tek, etc., which manufacture PCBs, enjoyed a quarterly rise in profits last year to reach a new high in Q4. In recent years, automobile PCBs have been the most popular product for overall PCB manufacturers. Therefore, the latest emerging vehicle ADAS products have created yet another battlefield as they mainly rely on high-frequency and high-speed PCBs, thus allowing the PCB producers Unitech and BroadTek to catch the limelight. Furthermore, the status of Taiwan Union Technology Corp. (TUC), which manufactures upstream CCL raw materials for high-frequency and high-speed PCBs, has soared and challenged the $100-mark share price.

 

After turning losses to profits since 2017 Q2, GBM has enjoyed gradual profit growth of $20.643 billion in revenue, down 8.2%, and an after-tax net income of $423 million, down 22.75%. With EPS of $0.8, it has achieved operating profits for two consecutive years, with a net income of $212 million in 2017 Q4, which surpassed the income of the first three quarters combine. It recorded a seasonal gain of 21.47%, an annual reduction of 6.57%, and an EPS of $0.4. With overall sound market conditions, the 2018 operating revenue and profits are expected to continue to grow.

 

Furthermore, GBM announced that it would invest $3.5 billion yen (about NT$935 million) in 70% stake of ELNA, a Japanese automobile PCB manufacturer, in order to gain operating dominance through Japan’s new investment project. This allows the company to further penetrate the Japanese automobile PCB market while expanding its automobile customers in Japan and Southeast Asia. After securing the operating dominance of ELNA in this investment project, GBM will start including the revenue of the PCB plant of Japanese ELNA in April. This investment project will be settled after both sides sign the contract on April 2.

 

In the second half of last year, HannStar Board’s operations began improving due to the favorable- operating surplus of GMB that was reinvested, with an annual cumulative revenue increase of 0.54%, reaching $39.629 billion. The after-tax net profit was $856 million, which showed an annual decrease of 9.39%. The 2017 Q4 after-tax net income was $343 million with a quarterly increase of 5.3%, an annual increase of 0.32%, and a quarterly net profit of $0.76. The company’s operation growth was driven by set-top boxes in line with IoT trends and the use of servo PCBs in 4.0 big data applications. Related products are expected to spur the company’s operations in the future. (Source: United News Network)