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GSEO Reports Strong LED Shipments

2014/03/26 | By Ken Liu

Genius Electronic Optical Co., Ltd. (GSEO) says it has shipped around 40,000 LED streetlights in Taiwan and China combined in 2013, when its LED business could turn a profit for the first time in eight years.

Last year the company generated revenue of NT$9.5 billion (US$318.5 million), sinking 16% year on year, with Q4 revenue of NT$2.4 billion (US$80 million), decreasing 20% or so from a quarter earlier, and first-three-quarter net loss of NT$3.44 per share.

While branching out into LED business eight years ago, the company still depends on optical lens for around 90% of revenue. Apple Inc. has been the company's foremost customer of the lens which is integrated into iPhone and iPad.

The company ascribes its loss in 2013 mostly to added spending on capacity expansion for Apple products, which did not pay off given worse-than-expected sales of iPhone 5c.

Taking advantage of its lens technology, the company branched out into LED business eight years ago by opening workshops in Xiamen and Shenyang, China in pursuit of the mainland's lucrative business opportunity created by aggressive government projects to cut energy consumption with LED lamps.

LED grew to contribute around 10% of the company's revenue last year, with its Shenyang site shipping an estimated 15,000 LED streetlights. In 2012, its two plants in China reported combined loss of NT$98.5 million (US$3.2 million).

This year, the company has added indoor lights and panel lights to its LED lighting product line and has shipped them to Europe and the United States not to mention the two sides of the Taiwan Straits. Company executives expect the company to win a government contract in Taiwan for tens of thousands of streetlights by the end of this year.

While striving for government contracts on the island, the company is also vigorously negotiating with China's state-run enterprises over cooperation on LED lighting projects.

GSEO's Operation Results (2009-2013)

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

Revenue

NT$1.09bn

NT$4.55bn

NT$8.43bn

NT$11.39bn

NT$9.55bn

After tax net income/loss

-NT$528M

NT$464M

NT$938M

NT$806M

-NT$332M(Q1-Q3)

Earning/loss per share

-NT$6.85

NT$5.99

NT$10.92

NT$9.04

-NT$3.44 (Q1-Q3)

Source: Taiwan Stock Exchange