Strong quarter at ARM Holdings

Chip designer ARM Holdings reported strong quarterly revenue and earnings growth, fuelled by licensing and record royalty revenue and said it expects full year results to be at least in line with current market expectations.

Revenue increased 28% to £170.3m for the quarter ended March 31st 2013 from £132.5m the same time a year earlier. Pre-tax profit rose 44% to £89.4m during the period. Earnings per share climbed to 5.31p from 3.36p before.

"Everyday devices are becoming smarter, more connected and more energy efficient, which is increasing the applicability of and demand for ARM's technology. In particular, this quarter ARM saw strong uptake of its next generation, higher royalty bearing ARMv8, Mali and big. LITTLE technology for smartphones and mobile computers," said outgoing Chief Executive Officer Warren East.

Key end markets including digital TVs and microcontrollers drove royalty revenues. The growth in smartphones and tablets continues to benefit ARM.

"Even low cost smart devices can contain multiple ARM-based chips and be based on ARM's advanced Cortex-A series technology and Mali graphics processors," the group explained.

Looking ahead ARM said it has made an encouraging start to 2013 with more companies choosing ARM technology in their products.

"We therefore expect group revenues for the full-year 2013 to be at least in line with current market expectations."

CJ