Mainland TV maker is hoping Asians will be tempted by its own-brand units Mainland television maker Skyworth Digital Holdings is hoping to energise sluggish exports this year with an aggressive overseas own-brand sales plan. The Hong Kong-listed firm has set an export growth target of 30 per cent to 2.5 million televisions this year, following a slight, 4 per cent growth to 1.91 million units last year. Chairman Stephen Wong Wang-sang said exports would be driven by sales of high-end models to Southeast Asia under the firm's own brand. 'Last year, we strategically avoided the export of low-end products that yielded a very thin margin. This year, we have adjusted our production to high margin models,' Mr Wong said while announcing the firm's full-year results to March. Skyworth, the mainland's fourth-largest television maker, has set an own-brand sales target of 50 per cent of exports by 2013, from 5 per cent last year. The move is part of a growing trend by mainland enterprises of developing their own brands and technology as a reliance on foreign input has resulted in a squeezing of margins. However, Skyworth's exports to Europe and Japan will still take the form of original equipment manufacturing for international brands such as Sanyo, Hitachi and Philips. To back up its shift to high-end models, Skyworth has earmarked 300 million yuan for the building of a television plant in Shenzhen with an annual production capacity of five million units. The factory will mainly produce large models, liquid crystal display televisions and digital light processing units. In the domestic market, Skyworth's sales target this financial year is set at seven million units, or about 13 per cent more than last year's 6.2 million units. Television sales in its home market grew 22 per cent last year. Net profit surged 60.08 per cent to $341.90 million, helped partly by a lower comparison base from the previous year, when the company settled a taxation dispute with the Inland Revenue Department and paid a one-off $64 million. Operating profit rose 44.21 per cent to $411.39 million while turnover grew 15.1 per cent to $9.21 billion and the gross profit margin edged up to 16.3 per cent from 15.3 per cent. Mr Wong said the company hoped to conclude a deal this year to acquire a state-owned consumer electronics maker, which could be vertically integrated into Skyworth's business. 'The acquisition could cost between 100 million yuan and several hundred million yuan,' Mr Wong said, adding it would have an internal return rate of up to 30 per cent. The company is believed to be in talks concerning the purchase of Beijing municipal government-founded television maker Beijing Peony Electronics Group. However, Mr Wong declined to comment on the talks yesterday.
