Investor Relations

Solomon Systech Returns to Profitability of US$ 1.3 million

Stays Focused on High-growth Smart Product Applications

Strives for Innovation and Excellence to Boost Growth

 

Financial Highlights:

 

  For the Year Ended 31 December  

2013

2012 Remarks
 

US$’m

HK$’m equivalent

US$’m

HK$’m equivalent

 
Sales 55.2 427.4 65.1 504.7 Decreased

15%

Gross Profit 21.0 162.7 25.1 194.9 Decreased

17%

Gross Margin 38.1% 38.6% Maintained
Net Profit/ (Loss) 1.3 10.3 (1.4) (10.6) Returned to Profitability
Earnings/ (Loss) per share 0.05

US Cent

0.42

HK Cent

(0.06)

US Cent

(0.43)

HK Cent

 

(Hong Kong – 20 March 2014) – Solomon Systech (International) Limited (“Solomon Systech” or “the Group;” SEHK: 2878) has demonstrated its determination to “strive to innovate” and “strive to excel”. It achieved profitable results of US$1.3 million for the year ended 31 December 2013 (“2013”). 

 

In 2013, the Group’s total sales were US$55.2 million, a decrease of about 15% year-on-year. It was mainly due to inventory adjustment in some of the display panel market segments and the volatile market conditions in the second half of the year. Nevertheless, the Group managed to maintain its gross margin for the year at 38.1%, comparable to 2012.

 

Dr. Humphrey Leung, Managing Director of the Group, said, “In 2013, Solomon Systech continued to focus on our target smart applications. To be better positioned to capitalize on these high growth, high volume market segments, we strived to innovate and enhanced our new product development process, business operations and market outreach, and also built a strong foundation to set the stage for the Group’s sustainable growth in the future.”

 

In 2013, a number of new products have extended the portfolio of the Group’s key product series, scoring design-wins with key customers. New product development process were streamlined and resources were also added to strengthen the product design engineering capabilities to enhance the quality and speed of new product introduction. Besides, the Group has restructured the operation of its core business units to further reinforce organizational efficiency and to achieve synergies and optimization of resources.



Business Review

The Group’s total unit shipments saw a year-on-year decrease of around 12% to approximately 90.5 million units, as some of the products faced customer-driven schedule delays and low quantity orders within the volatile industry landscape and subsequent to inventory adjustment of some application market segments. The book-to-bill-ratio for the year was 0.86 (2012: 1.07).

 

The Mobile Display business unit has achieved technology advances in 2013, facilitating its shift towards higher resolution, high-end and higher value-added applications, in particular smartphones and industrial applications. The Group launched a number of LCD display driver ICs targeting the rapidly growing HD resolution smartphone market in China and securing a number of design wins with key smartphone brands. It also collaborated with top-tier customers to develop HD LCD display driver ICs supporting metal oxide TFT technology with pilot shipment starting in the last quarter of 2013, as well as an in-cell touch technology solution for HD smartphones, presently undergoing qualification.

 

For Mobile System business units, the Group has added a number of new products to enrich its portfolio of touch panel controller ICs for high-resolution smartphones and tablets, scoring a number of design-wins. Its MIPI display interface controller ICs, with enhanced image processing functions targeting high-resolution, high-speed and low-power display Full HD and WQXGA smart devices garnered additional design wins with global tablet brands and enjoyed strong growth in the first half of 2013. Its graphic display controller ICs achieved design wins including smartphones, smart watches and other smart devices, while its multimedia processors scored design wins in video cameras.

 

Advanced Display business units had an increase in unit shipments by around 6% to 57.5 million units. In addition to the integration with the Green Power business unit, the business unit further extended the product portfolio and diversified its OLED applications. Spurred by the growing demand for displaying more complex content in high resolution on electronic shelf labels (ESL) with ultra-low power consumption, the Group launched a number of new AMEPD display driver ICs for ESL, reinforcing its strong position in this industry segment. Besides, it also successfully launched a qHD display driver IC for China’s first AMOLED panel, which marked an important milestone in the advance of AMOLED technology in China and laid a strong foundation for the Group to develop AMOLED driver ICs with even higher resolution.

 

Regarding the Large Display business unit, the Group developed new large TFT driver ICs for high-resolution displays covering 31.5″ TVs as well as 18.5″ and 21.5″ monitors. ICs for TVs have started mass production in the second half of 2013, while those for monitors are undergoing qualification procedures for mass production in 2014.

 

Prospects

 

Striving to Focus on Bright Spots for Growth

While the worldwide semiconductor industry is expected to show steady growth in 2014 benefitting from the improving global economy, smart portable devices such as smartphones and tablets are anticipated to fuel industry growth in the coming years. These are among the application segments that Solomon Systech has focused on in view of their great potential. The Group’s products launched in 2013 and in the pipeline would offer cost-effective solutions to capture these market opportunities.

 

At the same time, having established a close working relationship with world-leading ESL manufacturers, the Group is in a strong position as a first mover in that segment and is ready to launch more new AMEPD display driver ICs. Besides, the Group is also diversifying the applications of PMOLED display driver ICs to include wearable health & fitness devices and smart watches, to capitalize on these rapidly growing markets to sustain growth momentum.



China as a Key Market

Solomon Systech has already established a strong foothold in China, an important target market for Group, in terms of customer relations and R&D, as well as sales and distribution network. In 2013, it has further strengthened its investment in China, adding more manpower resources and tailored products and services. China is a key growth driver of the global semiconductor and electronics industry, providing great market prospects for the Group’s focused product applications. Leveraging its strong base and the extensive business networks of its substantial shareholder CEC, and its innovative products, the Group is ready to expand further into this market of immense potential.

 

Dr. Leung concluded, “Looking into 2014, as our focused business areas have demonstrated strong growth potential and the market conditions continue to improve, the Group will continue to invest more resources to develop related new products and technologies, and strengthen its sales and marketing efforts to capture arising opportunities.”