14 November 2023, Taipei, Taiwan – Hon Hai Technology Group (“Foxconn”) (TWSE:2317) today announced its third quarter 2023 financial results.
Revenue reached NT$1.5432 trillion, and gross profit margin increased to 6.66%, as key profit margins improved across the board. Gross profit margin hit a quarterly record high not seen since 2017. Net profit attributable to owners of the parent company in the third quarter was NT$43.1 billion, a sequential growth of 31% and an annual growth of 11%. Earnings per share was NT$3.11. Overall performance in the July-September quarter was better than expected, and operations in the final quarter of 2023 are expected to continue to ramp up, showing quarter-on-quarter growth. Looking ahead to next year, the company believes that it needs to observe factors such as monetary policy, inflation, and the political and economic situation; currently the company’s holds a neutral view for 2024.
Revenue in the third quarter of 2023 reached NT$1.5432 trillion, a quarterly increase of 18% but an annual decrease of 12%. Gross profit reached NT$102.8 billion, up 23% on quarter, but down 5% on year. Operating profit was NT$46.2 billion, up 49% from the previous quarter, but falling 5% when compared from a year earlier; net profit (attributable to the owners of the parent company) was NT$43.1 billion, up 31% and 11% on-quarter and on-year, respectively. Gross profit margin, operating profit margin and net profit margin (attributable to the owners of the parent company) all displayed improvement sequentially and from a year earlier basis. At 6.66%, 2.99% and 2.79%, respectively, for the July-September period, they compared with gross profit margin, operating profit margin and net profit margin in the second quarter of 6.41%, 2.37%, and 2.53%, respectively, and 6.16%, 2.78%, and 2.22% in the third quarter of 2022. EPS reached NT$3.11, an increase of 0.31 yuan compared with the same period last year.
For the January-September period, revenue reached NT$4.3101 trillion, a year-on-year decrease of 8%, while gross profit fell 5% on-year to NT$274.7 billion, operating profit was off 9% on-year to NT$117.6 billion, and net profit (attributable to the owners of the parent company) decreased 12% to NT$89 billion. Gross profit margin, operating profit margin and net profit margin (attributable to owners of the parent company) were 6.37%, 2.73%, and 2.06% respectively, compared with 6.20%, 2.78%, and 2.18%, respectively, for the same period last year; EPS for the first three quarters of this year reached NT$6.42, a decrease of NT$0.90 from a year ago. The main reason for the performance was due to the investment company impairment in the first quarter of this year.
Regarding the Group’s operations in 2023, Chairman and CEO Young Liu said that the six operational pillars outlined at the beginning of this year, ranging from ICT, new business development to global footprint and ESG practice, have for the most part – one by one – been implemented according to plan, even as Hon Hai faced many different challenges throughout the year.
Looking forward to 2024, Chairman Liu believes that the most important influencing factors to observe are monetary policy, inflation and the political and economic situation. In addition, with global economic growth expected to slow down next year, the Group will hold a relatively neutral view on the outlook for ICT in 2024. Hon Hai will do its best to maintain operational stability, meet customer needs, and leverage the company’s strengths.
Next year, servers within the cloud and networking products is expected to be a main source of growth, especially on continued increase in demand from CSP customers and the strong demand for AI servers; for EVs, the ongoing, steady production of the Group’s MODEL T electric bus and as MODEL C enters mass production with its successive deliveries, contribution from vehicle revenue is commencing. In terms of components, the Group is also gradually expanding projects and scale; revenue here will continue to grow in 2024.
Chairman Liu emphasized that Hon Hai is transforming from a manufacturing service company into a platform solution company. This year on Hon Hai Tech Day (HHTD23) we proposed: smart city, smart manufacturing and smart electric vehicles. These three major platforms cover what we have been doing and where our future development direction is heading.
When speaking of smart platforms, artificial intelligence is imperative. The future development of these three major platforms will be powered by AI factories to become ever smarter. Specifically, the AI factory will analyze a large amount of data and generate various new application content or solutions through self-learning.
On the EV front, Hon Hai currently has a total of 51 EV projects in progress, of which 23 are in the discussion and development stage at the minimum involving 14 potential customers. Continuing to expand our customer base is our most important task. Recently, we have experienced increasing customer interest in the CDMS business model.
In addition to the development of existing new businesses, the successful launch of the PEARL low-Earth-orbit satellites, independently researched and developed by the Group, has attracted attention. In the coming year, the two satellites will conduct broadband communications experiments and space environment detection. Next, more experiments and explorations will be carried out on applications of next-generation communications integrating semiconductors, artificial intelligence and electric vehicles. The Group also continues to cooperate with a number of cloud platform, space computing and satellite manufacturers in the B5G and new space fields to industrialize low-Earth-orbit communication satellite systems.
In response to the recent tax audit situation at the Group’s China campuses, Hon Hai Chief Financial Officer David Huang firmly stated during the investor conference that the company always operates under the principle of complying with laws and regulations in our locations around the world. At present, the Group’s production and operations are normal. We will actively cooperate with the relevant units and hope that the related work can be completed as soon as possible to alleviate everyone’s concerns about uncertainty.
Recently, some media have used inappropriate methods to panic the public. CFO Huang stated firmly, “The Group has made relevant clarifications. On the one hand, we will ask for clarification from these media, and on the other hand, we will reserve the right to legal recourse to protect the rights of investors.” The Group understands that everyone is very concerned about this matter. We are actively responding to it. If there are clear results, we will certainly disclose it to let everyone know. Everything should be based on the company’s official statement.
SOURCE: Foxconn
