Merry Electronics post $30 million profit for 2007

Merry Electronics, a Taiwan-based manufacturer of headsets for mobile phones, has announced its results for 2007. After-tax profits totalled NT$896 million (US$29.4 million), equivalent to NT$5.63 per share. This represents an 18.9% increase compared to 2006.

However, despite rising profits, the company’s gross margin saw a decline of almost 5 percentage points, down from 27.2% in 2006 to 22.7% in 2007. Merry has attributed this decline to increased expenditure on R&D, and upon fourth quarter losses in investments.

The company has reported fourth quarter pre-tax profits of NT$166 million, representing an on-quarter fall, as well as a 22.6% fall compared to the fourth quarter in 2006.

Shareholders will receive a cash dividend of NT$4.28 per share.