Terminal market demand is weakening, and Whitt estimates that revenue will drop by more than 20% this year.

Due to the sluggish demand in the end market, which affects the construction of customer production capacity, the legal person predicts that Whitt's revenue and profits will still show a sluggish trend from 2022 to 2023, but it is expected to gradually bottom out, and inventory depletion is expected to gradually pick up.

Mainland China’s lockdown policies have affected LED industry supply chain shipments, and weak end-market demand has delayed the construction of LED manufacturers’ production capacity. Revenue in the third quarter of this year was 786 million yuan (NT$, the same below), a quarter-on-quarter decrease of 46.59%. Due to the delay in purchasing goods from customers and the provision of bad debt losses, the gross profit margin dropped to 32.23%, and the operating profit decreased by 79.41% quarter-on-quarter. Due to external recognition of exchange benefits, after-tax net income was 245 million yuan, a quarterly decrease of 21.59%, and EPS was 3.33 yuan.

Due to the downturn in the LED industry, customer orders have been delayed. Whitt said that the revenue in November and December was approximately the same as in October. The legal person estimates that the revenue in the fourth quarter of this year will be 421 million yuan, a quarterly decrease of 46.41%. Due to the reduction in revenue scale, gross profit margin is expected to decline, and the industry may fall into losses. If the industry's foreign exchange benefits shrink, it is estimated that after-tax profits and losses will be about even, and EPS will be -0.08 yuan.

Due to the epidemic prevention and control measures in mainland China, the momentum of some customers' purchase of goods has slowed down, and the terminal market demand has weakened in the second half of this year, which has delayed the construction of customer production capacity. The legal person estimates that revenue in 2022 will be 4.497 billion yuan, an annual decrease of 21.32%. Due to weaker revenue and recognition of inventory losses, gross profit margin dropped to 34.50%, operating profit decreased by 47.39% year-on-year, and exchange benefits were injected. The estimated after-tax net profit was 933 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 6.69%, and EPS reached 12.69 yuan.

Looking forward to 2023, as the end consumer market demand has not yet improved, which affects the production capacity deployment progress of LED manufacturers, and the revenue base period in the first half of this year is relatively high, it is estimated that the revenue of point testing machines and sorting machine equipment will decrease by 18.83% year-on-year. The company focuses on the development of laser processing equipment and LD testing equipment, and merged 100% of the equity of Zhaoxiang Optoelectronics and Wuhan Xintiantong in November, which will help improve the product integrity of the laser diode market. It is estimated that the revenue of laser processing equipment and LD testing equipment will increase by 130.54% annually. OEM and other revenue performance was relatively stable.

The legal person estimates revenue in 2023 to be 4.227 billion yuan, an annual decrease of 5.99%. In terms of profitability, the estimated gross profit margin is 33.60%, and operating profit is expected to decrease by 4.05% annually. If there is no foreign currency exchange benefit, the after-tax net profit is estimated to be 555 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 40.44%, and the EPS is estimated to be 7.56 yuan. (Source: Times Information)