Smartphones boost profit of Apple chip supplier

ARM Holdings, the British chip designer whose technology powers Apple's iPad and iPhone, posted a 45 per cent rise in quarterly profit and said its growth would continue to outstrip the industry as its designs were used in ever more devices. "We have benefitted from the rapid growth of smartphones, tablets and smart TVs, and many of these devices contain multiple ARM chips," Finance Director Tim Score told reporters yesterday. Result The Cambridge-based company, which designs the low-energy processors found in nearly all mobile phones, tablets and a host of other devices, said fourth-quarter pretax profit rose to £69 million (Dh397.67 million) on revenue up 21 per cent to £138 million. ARM shares rose as much as 7 per cent to 640 pence, the top gain in London's blue-chip FTSE 100 index, after the numbers soundly beat forecasts and the group gave a bullish outlook. Analyst Lee Simpson at brokerage Jefferies said the results handsomely beat expectations and the company was well placed to deliver a solid performance this year and next. Noting strong royalties and a high backlog of lic-ensing deals, Simpson said: "We see ARM in very good shape for 2012 and 2013 whatever the weather." Royalties ARM counts royalties a quarter in arrears, so its fourth-quarter numbers do not fully capture last year's holiday season demand, including Apple's blow-out sales. The group's processor designs are licensed to chipmakers such as Texas Instruments Inc, Qualcomm Inc and Nvidia Corp, and in return it receives a royalty for every chip shipped. A record 2.2 billion chips based on ARM's technology were shipped in the fourth quarter, Score said. Royalty revenue grew 21 per cent in 2011 as a whole, outstripping an 8 per cent rise for the industry, the company said. -    £69m: fourth-quarter pretax profits -    45%: growth in profits over the previous quarter