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Sharp's LCD business looking bright

A Sharp employee displays the company's latest video player. Sharp expects profits to climb 23 percent this year, helped by increased demand for LCD televisions. PHOTO: AFP

Sharp Corp, Japan's largest maker of liquid-crystal displays, said profit in the fiscal year just ended probably fell 71 percent because of investment losses related to its shareholdings, mainly in banks.

Group net income probably totalled ?11 billion (US$83 million) for the twelve months ended March 31, down from of ?38.5 billion in the year-ago period, Sharp said in a statement to the Tokyo Stock Exchange. In October, the company said it would probably earn ?26 billion last fiscal year.

Japanese companies ranging from Sanyo Electric Co to Sumitomo Trust & Banking Co slashed their earnings forecasts after the Nikkei 225 stock index's 15 percent decline reduced the value of their assets. Writedowns aside, investors say Sharp is in relatively good shape and may see earnings improve this fiscal year as LCD prices rebound.

"The LCD business is getting better," Hiroyoshi Nakagawa, chief investment officer at SG Yamaichi Asset Management Co, which manages US$21 billion in assets, said before the earnings announcement. "LCD prices are rising, mobile phones are being equipped with larger displays and laptop PC sales are improving."

Sales last fiscal year probably fell 11 percent to Yn1.8 trillion, matching its October forecast, Sharp said. Osaka-based Sharp, which will report full-year earnings on April 25, didn't specify how much of its investments it will write down for the fiscal year just ended.

The market price of a 15-inch flat panel display will reach US$260 as early as this month, compared with about US$200 late last year, Sharp has said. The company's newest LCD plant has operated at full capacity since February as notebook PC and monitor makers asked for more flat screens, it said.

Sharp's group operating profit is likely to rise 23 percent to Yn90 billion in the year ending March 31, 2003, thanks to rising sales of LCD screens, LCD television sets and mobile phones, the Nihon Keizai newspaper said yesterday. Sales are likely to increase 11 percent to ?2 trillion, the report said.
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