Japanese electronics firm NEC Corp said yesterday its net loss deepened from a year earlier for the three months ending in June because of a reorganization of its semiconductor business.
NEC said its group net loss widened to ¥43.1 billion (US$491 million) in the fiscal first quarter from ¥33.8 billion a year earlier.
The company booked a special loss of ¥6 billion as it undergoes reorganization to spin off its semiconductor unit, NEC Electronics, whose loss-making performance had long been dragging on NEC’s bottom line.
NEC Electronics merged with unlisted Renesas Technology on April 1 to create the world’s third-largest semiconductor company by sales.
The exclusion of the chip-making unit subtracted semiconductor sales from NEC’s group results, but helped improve its operating profit.
NEC’s group revenue dropped 14.2 percent to ¥667.5 billion, but its operating loss for the quarter narrowed to ¥23.2 billion from ¥40.0 billion.
For the current fiscal year through March next year, NEC continues to expect a net profit of ¥15 billion and operating profit of ¥100 billion on revenue of ¥3.3 trillion.
Separately, Sanyo Electric Co said yesterday that it returned to profit in the first fiscal quarter, posting ¥10.6 billion in the three months to reverse a loss of ¥18.4 billion a year earlier on brisk solar battery sales.
For the first half ending Sept. 30, the company raised its net profit outlook to ¥16 billion from a break-even outlook. Panasonic secured a controlling stake in Sanyo in December amid a wave of operational streamlining by Japan’s high-tech giants as they sought to recover from a severe industry slump sparked by the global economic downturn.
In South Korea, LG Electronics, a top global manufacturer of flat-screen TVs and mobile handsets, said second-quarter net profit fell by one-third amid a decline in sales and weaker profitability for phones.
LG Electronics, the world’s third-biggest maker of flat-screen TVs, earned 856 billion won (US$722.4 million) in the three months ending June 30, it said yesterday in a regulatory filing. That was down 33 percent from a net profit of 1.28 trillion won a year earlier.
Sales in the second quarter fell a marginal 0.7 percent to 14.4 trillion won from 14.5 trillion won a year earlier.
Seoul-based LG Electronics Inc said that sales of flat-screen TVs rose 47 percent to 6.3 million sets from the year before.
Mobile phone handset sales rose 2 percent to 30.6 million units, while revenue fell 31 percent to 3.38 trillion won, the company said in the release and presentation materials for investors.
The company ranks No. 3 behind South Korean rival Samsung Electronics Co and Japan’s Sony Corp in flat-screen TVs. It is also the world’s third-largest manufacturer of mobile phones behind Nokia Corp of Finland and Samsung, which holds the No. 2 spot.
Looking ahead, LG Electronics said it expected overall “modest growth” in the third quarter in line with the ongoing world economic recovery. For its home entertainment business, which includes TVs, it said sales increases would be “steady.”
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