Yahoo!  My Yahoo!  Mail
				News Home - Help

News Home Top Stories World Asia Pacific Business Technology Entertainment Sports Photos -- News by Country -- Indonesia Malaysia Philippines Singapore Thailand -- Greater Asia -- China Hong Kong Taiwan
	Yahoo! Asia News Search Yahoo! News

		advertisement
Friday February 1, 7:50 PM Sharp profit up 5.5 percent on LCD panel demand Photo: Reuters Click to enlarge TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese tech conglomerate Sharp Corp reported a 5.5 percent rise in quarterly operating profit to a record high, as rivals delayed opening new plants, slowing price declines for the big LCD panels it specializes in. That more than offset steep TV price falls for Sharp -- the world's third-largest LCD TV maker behind Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Sony Corp -- and higher silicon raw material prices that hurt profits at its solar cell unit. Sharp is building the world's largest LCD panel factory in western Japan to boost efficiency and better weather falling prices that have prompted others to delay new production. However an economic slowdown in the United States, a key market for its big flat TVs, has cast a shadow over its outlook. "The U.S. economy will probably be slowing down a bit," Sharp director Tetsuo Onishi told a news conference on Friday. "But, on the other hand, the economy remains robust in China and other BRIC countries," he said. BRIC groups Brazil, Russia, India and China. "We will focus on those nations to secure revenues." Sharp's LCD TV sales in China surpassed those in Europe in December. RECORD SALES, PROFITS Sharp's operating profit totaled a record 51.99 billion yen in October-December, up from 49.28 billion yen a year earlier and in line with a consensus 52.2 billion yen estimate by 6 analysts. Net profit rose 3.8 percent to 29.6 billion yen on sales of 921.2 billion yen, up 12.3 percent. Both of these were also records. For the full year to March, the company kept its outlook unchanged, topping market expectations. It forecast an operating profit of 190 billion yen ($1.8 billion), up from 186.5 billion yen a year earlier and above the consensus of 182.5 billion yen in a poll of 19 analysts by Reuters Estimates. But shares of Sharp could still fall in the short term, said Sohichi Yamazaki, chief analyst at Fukoku Capital Management Inc. "On the surface, Sharp's growth looks sluggish compared to its growth in the past and Panasonic's performance," he said, referring to Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd's 22 percent quarterly growth. "Sharp needs to find more (TV makers) that it can supply its panels to, like it did with Toshiba." SELLING PANELS Sharp said in December it would supply Toshiba Corp with LCD panels, securing a stable and major buyer. In turn, Sharp will buy microchips from Toshiba for use in its TVs. Japanese consumer electronics maker Funai Electric Co Ltd , which was hit by a shortage of LCD panels last year, told Reuters in December it might also buy panels from Sharp. Sharp's announcement follows quarterly results from Taiwan's AU Optronics Corp , the world's No.3 LCD maker, on Wednesday. AU also posted a record quarterly profit due to strong LCD demand, a trend the company said will continue into 2008. Shares in Sharp closed down 0.7 percent at 1,826 yen ahead of the announcement, versus the Tokyo stock market's electrical machinery index , which lost 0.2 percent. Sharp shares lost 12 percent from October through Thursday, while the sub-index fell 19 percent. ($1=106.36 Yen) (Additional reporting by Yoko Kubota, Mayumni Negishi, Nathan Layne, Yumi Horie) (Editing by Mike Miller and Rodney Joyce)