HP growing in Asia-Pacific
As more evidence of Asia's economic revival, Hewlett-Packard today reports two consecutive quarters of growth in the region.
Sales orders in the second quarter grew 8.35 percent over the first quarter of this year. The first quarter grew 29.62 percent over the previous quarter.
Compared to the same quarter last year, HP's Asia-Pacific sales orders grew 22.87 percent, said Cheah Kean Huat, HP's managing director for Singapore and the Southeast Asian sales region.
Despite the upswing in sales orders, the region's revenue still dipped 3 percent to $1.9 billion because of the six to eight-month lag between sales orders and revenue, said Cheah. In Southeast Asia, most major markets grew in the first half of this fiscal year. Sales orders grew to $444.9 million, a 14 percent increase over the same period last year.
Singapore grew 15 percent, Thailand 34 percent, the Philippines 34 percent, and Indonesia 91 percent. The exception was Malaysia which declined 17 percent because of the imposition of capital controls.
See the full story at the CNET Singapore site.