ST Assembly Has Wider First-Quarter Loss; Sales Fall (Update5)
By Greg Chang
quote.bloomberg.com
Singapore, May 2 (Bloomberg) -- ST Assembly Test Services Ltd., Singapore's biggest tester of semiconductors, said its first- quarter loss widened as sales fell by almost a fifth. Compared with the fourth quarter, sales exceeded the company's forecast, indicating demand for chips may be rebounding.
The loss was $26.6 million, or 27 cents an American depositary share, compared with a loss of $23 million, or 23 cents, a year earlier. Sales fell to $39.4 million from $48.6 million. A 16 percent increase in sales from the fourth quarter beat the company's forecast of as much as 5 percent growth.
The report marked the fifth-straight quarterly loss for ST Assembly, which tests and packages chips for customers such as Analog Devices Inc. Still, the company's shares have risen about 32 percent this year on optimism it will benefit from a rebound in chip demand after the industry's worst year in 2001. The stock is the fifth-best performer on Singapore's Straits Times Index.
``End demand is improving,'' said Terence Wong, an analyst with J.M. Sassoon & Co., who rates the shares ``buy'' and doesn't own them. ``Quite a few semiconductor companies have come out to say the worst is over.'' |
