SHENZHEN -- Nam Tai today reported fourth-quarter net income of $9.2 million, down 74.7% from a year ago. The company said it will exit the EMS business following the wind down of orders for LCMs at its Shenzhen facility.

Net income from continuing operations decreased to $8.7 million from $19.7 million in same period last year, mainly due to one-time charges of $12.5 million tied to layoff compensation. The results include the company's discontinued operations, primarily its Wuxi facility.

Excluding discontinued operations, net sales for the period ended Dec. 31 were $234.9 million, down 24.7% from the same period in 2012. Gross profit was $20.5 million, down 27.1%. The gross profit margin was 8.7%, or 30 basis points lower year-over-year. Operating income was down 76% to $5 million.

The Wuxi facility generated no revenue in the fourth quarter 2013, versus $156.4 million in the same period 2012. The site had a gross loss of $100,000 in the current period, versus a profit of $20.8 million last year, and operating income of $300,000 and $18 million, respectively.

For the year ended Dec. 31, net sales (excluding Wuxi) rose 26.2% to $855.8 million. The gross profit was $67.6 million, down 0.9%, and the gross profit margin slipped 2.2 percentage points to 7.9%. Operating income fell 21.7% to $35.5 million.

For the fiscal year, Nam Tai's discontinued operations recognized net sales of $47.1 million, down from $494 million in fiscal 2012. The gross loss was $500,000, down from a profit of $37 million, while the operating loss fell to $37.9 million from a profit of $25.9 million. The net loss was $300,000, down from net income of $66.9 million in 2012.

While the company reported nearly a quarter billion dollars in sales in the fourth-quarter, it has discontinued its production operations at Wuxi and will do the same in Shenzhen by the end of April. "There are presently no more outstanding orders for smartphone LCMs. There are, however, still a few minor LCM orders for automobile applications requested by another customer, which would allow us to extend a small amount of production up to the end of April. We currently have no more orders for any LCM production thereafter and estimate that the aforesaid final orders will only generate net sales of around $50 million in the first half of 2014," Nam Tai said.

It's a stunning end to what just two years ago was one of the highest flyers in the EMS industry. In 2012, Nam Tai had nearly doubled its annual revenue to $1.15 billion, on the back of demand for liquid crystal modules for smartphones and tablets. Now, the company plans to earn its future in real estate.

In a release, the company said, "We have been forced to cease our core business of LCM production by the end of April 2014, due to a customer's repeated and continuous changes in its formal purchasing orders without suitable commitment and, as a result, a strong likelihood that no reasonable profit margin can be gained anymore from continuing production. We have decided our core business of LCM production will formally cease by the end of April. After April, we intend to sell all of our machinery and production lines in all our facilities. We expect the sales will be finalized around end of July.

"Upon the cessation of our core business of LCM production, our management will thoroughly focus our efforts on developing two parcels of property in Gushu, Shenzhen, and Guangming, Shenzhen, respectively, by converting these two parcels of land into high-end commercial complexes. Upon which, we will become the landlord and manager of the commercial complexes and, as a result of which, our core business will be transformed from the EMS industry to property development and management."