Artel says 2001 profit and sales jump
HONG KONG, April 24 (Reuters) - Artel Solutions Group Holdings Ltd, distributor of more than one-third of the Intel Corp (NasdaqNM:INTC - news) central processing units sold in China last year, said on Wednesday its 2001 net profit rose 45 percent as sales surged.
In Artel's first year as a listed company, net profit rose to HK$117.3 million ($15.0 million) and revenue rose 44 percent to HK$1.415 billion.
Its shares closed 4.71 percent lower at HK$0.81 on Wednesday after gaining more than 17 percent in the previous three months.
As one of Intel's handful of non-exclusive authorised dealers in China, Artel earned more than 90 percent of its revenue from selling motherboards and CPUs, the key chips that are the brains of computers, for the U.S. semiconductor giant.
Artel Executive Director Frederick Yu said the firm recently signed an agreement with Intel and telecoms carrier China Netcom to provide Intel's local-area-network products for the rollout of a wireless network in as many as 1,000 commercial buildings in China.
``This should diversify our risk of over-relying on the computer component distribution business,'' Yu told a news briefing.
The Hong Kong-based distributor sold 35 percent of Intel's CPUs and 60 percent of Intel's motherboards in the mainland China market.
Revenue from CPU distribution, which accounts for the bulk of Artel's turnover, jumped 60 percent. Revenue from selling motherboards more than doubled to HK$78.6 million.
Yu said the firm hopes its new businesses of providing wireless network products and selling motherboards under its own brand name, Arcon, will lift its profit margins into double digits over the next few years as its existing businesses mature.
(US$1=HK$7.8)
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