Asustek Makes Positive Revenue Projection for Q2

Taipei, May 5, 2011 (CENS)--Despite seasonal factors, Asustek Computer Inc.'s CEO Jerry Shen said at an investor conference that his firm's combined revenue for the second quarter of this year is estimated to grow 5% to NT$77.6 billion from the first quarter, with the growth mainly fueled by strong shipment of PCs

Shen projected the firm's notebook PC shipment for the second quarter to increase 10.7% quarter-on-quarter to 3.1 million units, with estimated 1.3 million units of Eee PCs and over 300,000 units of Eee Pad tablet PCs.

One reason behind the firm's optimism about the PC shipment growth is stable supply of PC parts. Shen said his company has secured supply sources of related peripherals, especially hard disc drives and disc drives, to make sure production lines will keep rolling without fail.

As to PC motherboard sales, Shen admitted that lingering shortages of PCBs (printed circuit boards) will cause shipment growth to stall in the second quarter compared to the first quarter. However, he stressed that an estimate of 5.7 million PC motherboards will be shipped in the second quarter, 25-30% more than the corresponding figure posted a year earlier.

Overall, the firm's business prospects for the second quarter are positive, with shipments of its major product lines, including PC motherboards, notebook PCs, netbook PCs and tablet PCs, to grow or remain the same as recorded in the first quarter, indicated Shen. But, continuous appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar against the greenback and the declining ASP (average selling price) of notebook PCs will, undermine the company's revenue performance in the quarter.

Asustek reported combined revenue of NT73.9 billion, an operating margin of 4.7% and EPS (earnings per share) of NT$5.5 for the first quarter of this year, with 5.7 million PC motherboards, 2.8 million notebook PCs, 1.3 million netbook PCs and a small number of tablet PCs shipped during the period.