Business

Saturday February 7, 2009

Sharp slips into the red


JAPAN’s Sharp Corp swung to a quarterly loss, battered by steep price falls of flat panel TVs and a firmer yen, and the electronics maker warned it would post its first ever annual operating loss.

Sharp says it will aim to reduce 200 billion yen in costs and cut 1,500 non-regular workers.

The maker of Aquos brand LCD TVs became the latest technology firm to fall victim to a deepening global recession, after Sony Corp, Panasonic Corp and Hitachi Ltd warned of deep losses.

It cut its outlook and warned of an operating loss of 30 billion yen for the year to March against its previous forecast of a 130 billion-yen profit and a consensus of a 45.4 billion-yen profit from 21 analysts polled by Reuters Estimates. It reported a 183.69 billion-yen profit a year ago.

Sharp is vulnerable to erosion in prices of both LCD-display panels and flat TVs. Sharp’s earnings were also hit by valuation losses on its securities holdings and a US$120mil fine for participating in a price-fixing cartel for LCD panels.

Sharp’s operating loss came in at 15.86 billion yen in October-December against a 51.99 billion-yen profit a year earlier. Sales fell about 20% to 735 billion yen. — Reuters

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