Taiwan’s Asus said today it has “not ruled out the possibility” of buying troubled smartphone maker HTC, which recently forecast a sharp loss for Q2, Reuters reported.

Asus chairman Johnny Shih made the comment in response to a question raised at its annual general meeting.

CFO David Chang told Reuters that while Shih mentioned the possibility internally, “the chances of an actual takeover are not big as Asus is a company that has depended on organic growth”.

Last week HTC cut its Q2 revenue forecast, citing “slower demand for high-end Android devices and weaker than forecast sales in China”, and also trimmed its gross margin forecasts, primarily on product mix change and reduced scale.

HTC shares dropped 20 per cent on Monday and Tuesday.

Asus is looking to regain momentum in the second half of the year after a slow start to 2015. It shipped more than 1.5 million smartphones in May, enabling its handset business to start generating profits, DigiTimes said. The company expects shipments to reach 2 million devices this month.

Asus was the third largest PC vendor last year.