Dear shareholders,
2021 Financial overview
The Group has achieved a remarkable performance in a difficult global economy in 2021. The investments in semiconductor and new energy have blossomed and contributed to the financial result of 2021. Hotung’s full year net profit after tax attributable to owners of the Company was NT$624.2 million (S$30.5 million) in 2021, a year-on-year increase of 19.7% from 2020. Earnings per share was NT$6.52 (S$0.319). Hotung recognized total revenue of NT$1,023.7 million, an increase of 1.4% compared to 2020’s revenue of NT$1,009.6 million. Revenue increase is attributed to returns from divestments, fair valuation changes of investment portfolios and dividends received from fund investments. Net Asset Value per share was NT$66.40 (2020: NT$64.61) at the end of 2021 after paid out cash dividends of NT$4.02484 per share in 2020. The Board has proposed a dividend of NT$5 per share for the fiscal year ended 31 December 2021.
Business overview
Along with the rollout of coronavirus vaccines, the global economy has started to rebound. However, there are impediment of the rebound such as goods prices rising, energy shortage, and widespread supply chain disruptions leading to inflation fear. Volatility of valuations of newly listed startup unicorns in co-sharing sectors have also influenced the outlook in the stock market.
In the past year, COVID-19 has accelerated the development and utilization of technology related to remote working and communication, such as artificial intelligence, video streaming, wide band transmission in different forms. As IT industry in Taiwan always have strong emphasis in the semiconductor sector, companies have been benefited, so as the investments we made several years ago.
Climate change is another global challenge. World leaders have reached a consensus to achieve carbon footprint reduction. We have seen the impact of high heat and freezing coldness in every corner of the world. It not only impacts our daily living, more importantly, the unusual weather condition changes the structure of food production and natural environment balance. As we are all world citizens, we should chip in our efforts to invest in this ESG concept.
Future OUTLOOK
Looking into the future, we are interested in artificial intelligence, cloud service, and wide band transmission technology, and sustainable energy. The new living form of this generation has changed because of pandemic situation. And it will not be ended only because the world lifts the border control and people resume traveling in the near future. Nevertheless, what we need to think is which is the basic need of mankind, and that is the goal and target of our new investment. Recent geopolitical turbulence was unforeseen a decade ago, and it will increase the uncertainty in 2022. But with your support, Hotung management team will make the best effort, as always, to make sound decisions and choose the best available investment opportunities. On behalf of our board members, I would like to thank you for your continuous support.
Tsui-Hui Huang
Chairman
Taipei, Taiwan
18 March 2022