Video Technology Holdings Ltd, VTech, the Hong Kong group that floated 15m shares at $1.10 apiece on the London Stock Exchange in October (CI No 1,770), has reported a healthy set of figures at the interim stage of its 1991 financial year. In US dollars, pre-tax profits climbed 12% to $21m on revenues of $286m, up 69%. The largest contributor, the Computers Division, saw sales jump 112% to $173m; Consumer Electronics’ revenues were up 13% at $74m; Telecommunications’ rose 77% to $38m; and Audio Video saw turnover drop 5% to $857m. While Computers’ sales doubled, however, this time’s figures include results from US distributor Leading Technology, in which VTech has a 64% stake. The division makes MS-DOS boxes and Apple II clones, marketed as the Laser and PC Partner lines. It was a strong demand in the German market for satellite receivers that accounted for the bulk of a 77% increase in sales for the telecommunications division. Chairman Allan Wong says prospects for expansion in this area as a result are favourable. And VTech is about to begin shipping in volume its 900MHz cordless phone. To strengthen its marketing capability in Germany, it has acquired a 49% stake in Sattelliten-Farm Antennenvertriebs GmbH, a distributor of satellite receivers. Technophone Manufacturing (HK) Ltd, a cellular mobile phone manufacturing joint venture in which VTech has a 50% interest, posted increases in turnover and profits. The US accounted for $201m of the group’s total business – this figure is double that of last year, given the company’s take up with Leading Technology; Europe’s contribution was up 18% at $53m; Canada’s also by 18% at $13m; Australasia’s up 35% at $9m; Hong Kong and China’s up 41% at $8m and South America and Africa’s up 88% at just under $2m. VTech does not expect results to be as strong for the second half, extrapolating seasonal trends of previous years.
