Makers of passive devices recorded mixed profit performances in Q1

Taipei, April 28, 2003 (CENS)--Of three local companies engaged in electric passive devices and listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, two saw their pretax profit for the first quarter of the year grow from one year earlier, and Walsin Technology Corp. suffered a large decrease of 76.10%.

The other two companies are Holy Stone Enterprise Co., Ltd. And Thinking Electronic Industrial Co., Ltd. Holy Stone is a distributor of electric passive devices, while Thinking Electronic specializes in producing thermistors (thermal resistors).

Walsin Technology produces MLCC (multi-layer ceramic chip capacitors) and chip resistors. The company brought in revenue of NT$1.421 billion, gross operating profit of NT$247 million, and net operating profit of NT$110 million in the first quarter, respectively rising by 35.2%, 38%, and 114.97% from the same quarter of last year.

Because of large non-operating losses and decreased value of inventory arising from drops in product price, Walsin Technology's pretax profit of NT$20.79 million for the first quarter of the year declined by 76.10% from the NT$87.0 million posted in the same period of last year. The company's after-tax profit of NT$18.39 million for last quarter also slipped by 82.32% from the NT$104 million registered a year earlier and translated into net (after-tax) earnings per share (EPS) of NT$0.06 based on the current capital of NT$2.911 billion.

Holy Stone scored record high monthly revenue of NT$539 million last month, going up by 29.58% from March last year. The company garnered revenue of NT$1.449 billion in the first quarter, a year-on-year rise of 34.17% and the historically highest quarterly level.

With gross operating profit of NT$219 million jumping by 38.72% from a year earlier, Holy Stone rang up pretax profit of NT$138 million in the first quarter, climbing by 51.85% from January-March 2002 and translating into EPS of NT$1.08 based on the current capital of NT$1.279 billion.

Thinking Electronic chalked up pretax profit of NT$45 million in the first quarter, growing by 36.36% from the NT$33 million posted in the same period of last year and 25.0% in excess of the NT$36 million projected for that quarter. Based on the current capital of NT$820 million, the company's pretax profit for last quarter was equivalent to EPS of NT$0.55.