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World Business Quick Take

■ ELECTRONICS

Sharp profits up

Japan's Sharp Corp reported a modest increase in third-quarter profits yesterday, helped by rising sales of liquid-crystal-display televisions and mobile telephones. But the company suffered a drop in profits for the first three quarters of the fiscal year as it invested in overseas production hubs and felt the effects of tax law changes. Sharp said its net profit rose 3.8 percent to £29.60 billion (US$278 million) in the three months to December from a year earlier. The company maintained its forecast for net profit to rise 3.2 percent to £105 billion for the full year.

■ SEMICONDUCTORS

Hynix profits plunge

Hynix Semiconductor Inc said yesterday that net profit last year plunged from the year before as prices of DRAM chips and NAND flash memory chips declined. Hynix, the world's second-largest computer memory chip manufacturer, said in a regulatory filing that it recorded a net profit of 328.59 billion won (US$348.7 million) compared with 2.01 trillion won a year earlier. Sales last year rose 11 percent to 8.43 trillion won from 7.569 trillion. For the final three months of last year, the company reported a loss of 467 billion won compared with a profit of 1.02 trillion won the year before.

■ BANKING

Paribas mulls SocGen bid

French bank BNP Paribas revealed on Thursday it was weighing a bid for stricken national rival Societe Generale. A week after announcing losses of 4.8 billion euros (US$7.1 billion) blamed on a rogue trader, Societe Generale is fighting to discourage potential takeover bids and raise 5.5 billion euros in fresh capital. A spokeswoman for BNP Paribas, France's top bank, said on Thursday it was considering making a bid: "We are thinking [about it], simply because all of Europe is thinking about it," she said. Foreign banks including Britain's HSBC and Barclays, Germany's Deutsche Bank, Spain's Banco Santander and Italy's UniCredit have also been cited as potential suitors.

■ WIRELESS

LM Ericsson to lay off 1,000

Wireless equipment maker LM Ericsson AB reported a sharp drop in fourth-quarter net profits and said yesterday it would lay off around 1,000 employees in Sweden because of cost cuts. In its earnings release, the Stockholm-based company said it planned to save around 4 billion kronor (US$629 million) a year, with all parts of its business to be affected. The company said operating margin for the quarter fell to 14 percent, from a previous 22.5 percent in the same three months in 2006. Fourth-quarter net profit fell 42 percent year-on-year to 5.6 billion kronor.

■ OIL

Supplies to be held steady OPEC

oil producers yesterday prepared to keep oil supplies unchanged despite worries among some leading Gulf producers that US$90-a-barrel crude is too high for consumer countries concerned about recession. Several ministers from OPEC have said they expect no change in policy at a meeting to be held yesterday. Powerful Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Nimi will back no change, al-Hayat newspaper reported, saying global supply and demand were in balance. Speaking early yesterday, OPEC president Chakib Khelil said he expected production to remain unchanged.