Sunday, November 4, 2007

WPG anticipates quarterly sales to grow after 4Q07 lull

Josephine Lien, Taipei; Esther Lam, DIGITIMES [Friday 2 November 2007]

WPG Holdings, which posted record-high quarterly sales in the third quarter, anticipates that quarterly sales growth will resume despite a temporary setback projected for the fourth quarter of 2007.

The number-one IC distributor in Asia Pacific said quarterly sales will post a 7-12% sequential decline in the fourth quarter to NT$37-39 billion (US$113.9-120.1 million). Sales in October will drop by more than 10% on month as some customers had over procured prior to a week-long holiday in China in early October. Gross margin is expected to maintain stable in the range of 5.7-5.9%, versus the 5.8% as recorded in the third quarter.

Quarterly sales growth should resume in the first quarter with a sequential growth of 5% anticipated, WPG said. Company chairman Simon Huang did not name a specific sales driver for 2008 and just noted that the company has a broad product portfolio. While the distributor is seeing growing sales contribution from China-based customers, WPG said it is also aggressively deploying in other regions such as India, Korea and Vietnam. But the company also noted that deployment in these regions takes time to bear fruit. The company only expects to have sales contribution from India after two to three years.





Source: Company, compiled by Digitimes, November 2007

















*ASEAN: Association of South East Asian NationsSource: Company, compiled by Digitimes, November 2007

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