Fortune Electric shares surge after net profit report

Electric machinery supplier Fortune Electric Co’s (華城電機) shares yesterday surpassed NT$1,000 to reach a new closing high this year, after the company on Monday reported that it made a net profit of NT$760 million (US$24.04 million) last month, up 18 percent year-on-year.That translated into earnings per share of NT$2.41, reaching 70 percent of the NT$3.45 per share it made in the third quarter of last year, company data showed.The Taoyuan-based company, which designs and manufactures transformers, switch gears and distribution equipment, reported revenue of NT$3.89 billion for last month, an annual increase of 10.85 percent.Full-year revenue totaled NT$24.42 billion for last year, a record high and up 20.89 percent from a year earlier, it said in a regulatory filing.Shares of Fortune Electric yesterday closed 4.36 percent higher at NT$1,005, having moved up 28.85 percent so far this year, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Fortune Electric is among several local heavy electrical equipment makers — including Shihlin Electric & Engineering Corp (士林電機) and Chung-Hsin Electric & Machinery Manufacturing Corp (中興電工) — that have seen shares surge since last year due to their rising exposure to artificial intelligence (AI) data center deployments, especially in the US.Fortune is a designated transformer supplier for the first-phase development of the US$500 billion Stargate project, an AI infrastructure plan backed by OpenAI, Softbank Group Corp and Oracle Corp.Fortune Electric received NT$2 billion in orders in the fourth quarter of last year and has completed up to NT$650 million of shipments for last year, it told an analysts’ meeting last month.The company’s order visibility extends to 2028, with an order backlog for transformers used in AI data centers reaching NT$14 billion, Fortune Electric president Ted Hsu (許逸德) told the Central News Agency on Monday.AI data center business accounted for 5 to 6 percent of the company’s total revenue last year and the figure is expected to increase to more than 20 percent this year, Hsu said.The company expects overseas shipments to account for 60 percent of its overall revenue this year, up from 55 percent last year, he added.Fortune Electric has four production bases in Taiwan, including a plant in Taoyuan’s Jhongli District (中壢) manufacturing small transformers, a plant in Taoyuan’s Guanyin District (觀音) manufacturing medium and large transformers, and another plant in Guanyin manufacturing switches, distribution panels and green energy engineering gear, its Web site showed.The company has been expanding its production capacity over the past two years, with the new facilities at its medium-sized transformer plant set to start production this year, while a new large transformer plant in Taichung is to begin construction this year and start volume production next year, it said.