Wistron turns its resources into electric buses, will reduce investment into Wiwynn, and invest 1.8 billion NTD in Master Transportation - Digital Times.

Wistron’s diversified layout is shifting from cloud servers to electric vehicles.

Wistron is a major EMS professional electronics manufacturing service provider in Taiwan. Since 2015, it has carried out digital transformation and set foot in smart medical care and electric vehicles markets. In 2012, Wistron, an independent server business, was launched and has been listed in 2019. This year, Wistron has decided to unload 6,000 Wiwynn stocks, of which 4,523 have been dealt with and signed. If all are sold at 939 NTD on Nov. 5th, 2021, there will be 5.634 billion NTD in cash.

Master Transportation is a shareholder of Kuo-Kuang Motor Transportation Company Ltd. The picture shows Wu, Ding Fa, Chairman of Master Transportation.

 On Nov. 5th, 2021, the board of directors of Wistron also announced that it would participate in the capital increase plan of Master Transportation within the limit of 1.8 billion NTD. The two parties have completed the letter of intent for the subscription. Master Transportation is a domestic bus manufacturer. This year, Master Transportation is actively deploying new business opportunities for electric buses. Master Transportation took the lead in obtaining the qualification for the electric bus subsidy pilot program of the Ministry of Communications. In August, an investment of 2 billion NTD to set up an R&D and manufacturing center in Erlin Township, Changhua County, to develop electric buses, battery modules, battery packs, and EIC system integration.

It is not in public yet about the capital increase plan of Master Transportation. Still, since Master Transportation entered the electric buses market this year together with some powerhouse partners, we can know its strength and potential impact on the market. This year, Master Transportation has announced cooperation with MSI, joined the MIH platform, and now Wistron has also become a shareholder. It shows that all parties want to gain opportunities in the electric bus market.

Wistron's board of directors announced its third-quarter financial report on Nov. 5th. Consolidated revenue in the third quarter reached 220.392 billion NTD, and net operating profit was 4.448 billion NTD. Due to the slump in the stock price of Luxshare ICT held outside the industry, the losses outside the industry exceeded 2.25 billion NTD. The single-quarter pre-tax net profit was 2.395 billion NTD, the after-tax net profit was 827 million NTD, and the earnings per share was 0.3 NTD, the lowest since the six seasons.

Wistron holds a 0.81% stake in Luxshare ICT's stock. In the third quarter, Luxshare ICT's share price fell 22.36%. Wistron needs to recognize and evaluate the loss of profit.

However, the accumulated consolidated revenue of Wistron in the first three quarters still reached 598.63 billion NTD. The net operating profit was 10.866 billion NTD, the pre-tax net profit was 10.514 billion NTD, the after-tax net profit was 5.092 billion NTD, and the EPS was 1.83 NTD.

Wistron also announced that in response to business development and strategic planning needs, it had established a new Vietnamese subsidiary, Wistron Property (Vietnam), with an investment of no more than US$29.3 million.