Taiwan Billionaire Duo’s iPhone Supplier Sees Another Revenue Drop Amid Coronavirus Crisis

Largan Precision, a supplier of camera lenses for iPhones, reported a 17% drop in revenue last month as consumer demand weakened due to the coronavirus crisis.

Revenue came to about $130 million in May, which is down 23% year-on-year. Largan reported a loss in April as well after steep growth in March.

Revenue slumped in May because of unusually low orders from clients, including smartphone makers, during the disease outbreak, says a spokesperson for Largan. Normally May belongs to a “peak period,” the spokesperson adds.

Coronavirus containment measures forced people around the world to stay home. Many lost their jobs and consumption plummeted as a result.

The coronavirus pandemic “wreaked havoc on the smartphone market in [the first quarter]” as global shipments fell 13% to 272 million units, market research firm Canalys says. Samsung led the world phone market, but its shipments fell 17% to 60 million, Canalys says. Industry analysts earlier in the year had forecast a slump in Apple’s orders across contractors, again because of the outbreak.

Weak demand for Largan is expected to linger into June, according to Taiwan-based technology website DigiTimes.

Largan, founded by billionaires Scott Lin and Tony Chen, ranks among more than a dozen Taiwanese suppliers and assemblers of Apple gadgets. Today Lin’s sons Adam and En-chou run the company. Lin’s net worth is currently estimated at $2.6 billion while Chen has a fortune of $2.1 billion, according to the Forbes real time rankings of the world’s billionaires.

Four iPhone models due to be released by year’s end will come with a 7P lens module and Largan is expected to supply 80% to 90% of them, DigiTimes says. The lens supplier should get a boost in revenues in the third quarter this year, it adds. Largan derived about 40% of its revenue last year from Apple.

Largan posted revenues of about $731.8 million for January through May, increasing 9.67% over the same period of 2019. Full-year 2019 revenue topped $2 billion.