Apple iPhone-maker Hon Hai posts first sales slide on record

Beijing

HON Hai Precision Industry Co, the main assembler of Apple Inc's iPhones, recorded its first annual revenue decline after the global smartphone market went through its worst year on record.

The company, also known as Foxconn, posted a 2.8 per cent fall in 2016 sales to NT$4.36 trillion (S$195.5 billion), it said in a filing to Taiwan's stock exchange, mostly in line with analysts' estimates. It was Hon Hai's first decline in annual revenue since listing in 1991, and comes as Terry Gou's Foxconn Technology Group prepares to invest billions of dollars in display-making capacity after taking control of Japan's Sharp Corp.