Mobiletron's electronic auto parts sales up 60% in first 5 months

Taipei, June 18, 2004 (CENS)--Taiwan's Mobiletron Electronics Co. saw revenue from its auto electronic business rise 60% in the first five months of the year from the same period of last year, according to company president Y.C. Tsai.

Tsai claimed that his company is mulling acquiring a leading auto parts distribution channel in the U.S. to further strengthen its global competitiveness. In addition, Mobiletron is also assessing the possibility of merging a financially-stranded power hand-tool maker in Europe, and the project will be finalized by the end of the third quarter.

According to Tsai, Taiwan companies moving their production lines to mainland China could get only lower-cost products, without gaining scores in international business deployment. He claimed that his company would continuously upgrade its global competitiveness by directly acquiring overseas brands and sales channels.

At a recent shareholders' meeting, Mobiletron decided to distribute cash dividend of NT$1 (US$0.03 at US$1: NT$33.5) and stock dividend of NT$0.5 (US$0.02) per share for last year's operations. Mobiletron reported revenue of NT$1.84 billion (US$55.01 million) last year, down 10% from a year earlier, and scored pretax earnings of NT$420 million (US$12.54 million) or after-tax earnings per share (EPS) of NT$1.95 (US$0.06).

Mobiletron had accumulated revenue of NT$602 million (US$17.97 million) in the first five months of this year, with auto electronic parts accounting for NT$290 million (US$8.67 million). Some institutional investors estimated that Mobiletron would enjoy a 20% revenue growth this year and have EPS of over NT$2.5 (US$0.07).

Mobiletron recently launched a multimedia rear-view mirror model with integrated in-car audio/video (A/V) entertainment, reverse camera view and global positioning system (GPS) navigation functions. The new mirror model has successfully tapped the Japanese. Mobiletron said that it is in talks with local China Motor Corp., local maker of Mitsubishi car and commercial vehicle models, on the adoption of the multimedia rear-view mirror on new cars.

Tsai admitted that 2003 was the worst year for Mobiletron in the past 13 years. Mobiletron's exports of electric hand tools to Porter Cables started to drop sharply in the second quarter of last year, and continued falling in the first half this year, due to the disputes between its major American customer Porter Cable and the American company's major distributor Lowe's.

Tsai said that Mobiletron's overall revenue is expected to grow by 30% this year and his company would gradually increase the auto parts business. Mobiletron's auto electronic parts business accounted for 37% of the company's total revenue in 2002 and 40% in 2003, and the figure is expected to reach 40% to 45% this year.