WPG Holdings Hits Record High in Q1, Eyes EPS of NT$4 in Q2 on Strong AI Demand

(CNA, by reporter Tseng Jen-kai, Taipei, 19th) IC distributor WPG Holdings held an investor conference today, where CFO Yuan Hsing-wen stated that due to the ongoing AI wave driving a significant expansion in demand for cloud service providers and enterprise AI infrastructure, WPG's first-quarter performance surpassed expectations. He added that market demand is expected to remain strong in the second quarter. In the first quarter, WPG Holdings' revenue reached NT$316.5 billion, a quarterly increase of 23.9% and an annual increase of 27.2%. Net profit attributable to the parent company was NT$5.548 billion, up 95.1% quarterly and a substantial 1.92-fold increase from the same period last year. Both revenue and profit set new historical highs, with a single-quarter earnings per share (EPS) of NT$3.3. According to WPG's Q2 forecast, based on an exchange rate assumption of NT$31.6 to US$1, consolidated revenue is projected to be between NT$345 billion and NT$365 billion, with a gross margin between 4.25% and 4.45%. Net profit after tax is estimated to be between NT$6.147 billion and NT$6.824 billion, both representing further growth from Q1. This translates to an estimated EPS of NT$3.65 to NT$4.06, challenging the NT$4 mark. Yuan Hsing-wen said that the AI wave has created strong pull-in momentum for components related to AI servers, general-purpose servers, high-performance storage, high-speed interconnects, memory, power management, and networking, which are the main drivers of WPG's operations this year. (Editor: Chang Chun-mao)