(Taipei News) Winbond Electronic Corporation today announced the results of today's board meeting. The Company Board of Directors reviewed and approved the 2002 Financial Report, which has also been formally audited by the Company's CPA. Winbond's 2002 annual revenue was NT $32.089 billion.This reflects an increase of 34 percent, when compared with the Company's 2001's annual revenue of NT $23.887 billion.Winbond's 2002 total loss, before taxes, is NT $4.972 billion. Winbond's total after tax loss is NT $4.193 billion. Net loss per share is NT $0.96.
For the past year, Winbond has striven to transform itself into a world class company focusing on core competencies. By mitigating some of the risk associated with more volatile products, the Company has been able to show significant progress on cost control while continuing to develop new products and technologies. Gross profit for 2002 was NT $6.198 billion, a significant improvement that reflected an increase in gross margin from negative 6 percent to plus 19 percent year over year. Operating expenses for 2002 sharply declined by 22 percent to NT $7.994 billion. However, the loss from IP write-offs totaled NT $2.579 billion, bringing the loss per share to NT $0.96; still considerably better than loss per share of NT $2.41 reported in 2001.
Reflecting improved economic prosperity in the fourth quarter of 2002, Winbond's net sales totaled NT $8.475 billion. This was an increase of 9 percent over the previous quarter and 49 percent over the same period last year. Gross profit increased to NT $1.777 billion, representing a gross margin of 21 percent. Net loss totaled NT $1.918 billion. Of that, NT $1.784 billion was for write-offs licensing fees. Winbond's increased fourth quarter revenues were mainly due to increased pricing and volume in DRAM products. Moreover, the Company's average sales price (ASP) for DRAM experienced increased growth, owing to a stronger product mix, which included DDR333 and 1T Pseudo SRAM. Shipments for TFT-LCD driver ICs also increased, due to seasonal demand. The dwindling ASP of low density Flash offset some of the revenue, but overall, the Company's financial performance still improved over last quarter. In summary, product breakdown in terms of revenue for the fourth quarter was: DRAM 68 percent, Non-DRAM Memory 7 percent, and Logic products 25 percent.
With explicit goals and steady progress, Winbond has attained its objectives according to the schedule laid out last year. The Company estimates that this trend will continue, gradually yielding increased revenue over the coming year. For example, the Company's Psuedo SRAM product line continues to gain market share and hold the leading position in terms of time-to market and technology development. Low power DRAM continues to garner increased market support and is currently in the sampling stage. In addition, as part of combining the technical strengths of the Company's Logic and Memory products, Winbond has leveraged MCP technology and supported the technology trend for SiP (System in Package) by rolling out an embedded digital image capture module product. This IC is an ideal solution for digital cameras, cell phones, PDAs and security system applications. With aggressive demand brought about by mobile communications for the growing multimedia services market, the outlook for color screen cellular phones and mobile electronic products is considered excellent in many industries. Therefore, Winbond estimates that the company's "Mobile Electronics Solution" for 2.5G cellular phones will be one of the main forces driving revenue growth this year.
In addition, Flash ICs constitute another key product for Winbond. Currently, Winbond has considerable market share in the motherboard market. The internally developed technology, WinStack, will sample 32Mb in the second quarter of 2003. Winbond has both in-house R&D and a joint agreement with Sharp to manufacture Flash. Both Winbond and Sharp are working to research and develop 0.18-micron and 0.13-micron processes for ACT1 Flash production technology. Winbond estimates ACT1 Flash will commence production in the first quarter of 2004. These complementary technology development efforts support Winbond's plans to begin production of 0.18-micron 32Mb NOR Flash products in the second quarter of 2003.
Looking forward to 2003, the Company will continue to further define its business focus and enhance its new product and technology development capacity, as well as provide complete IC solutions for mobile applications, particularly for 2.5G cellular phones. Finally, in tandem with continued strong performance from the Company's Logic Product Group, Winbond estimates that overall, the Corporation will continue to experience improved performance throughout the year.
Spokesperson
Wilson Wen
Vice President of Administrative Center
Tel：03-5792755
News Liaison
Mike Liu
Deputy Director
Tel：03-5792516
Email：ckliu@winbond.com