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TOKYO: Japan's Toshiba Corp. said Thursday net profit jumped 76 per cent to a record high in the year to March thanks to strong sales of electronic goods and its massive purchase of US nuclear power plant maker Westinghouse.
The high-tech giant said it sold securities and fixed assets to offset the cost of buying Westinghouse, which was one of the largest Japanese acquisitions overseas in years, and falling prices in its key chip business.
Toshiba posted a record net profit of 137.4 billion yen (US$1.16 billion) for the financial year, up from 78.2 billion yen.
Revenue rose 12 per cent at 7.12 trillion yen, with operating profit gaining seven percent to 258.4 billion yen.
"The company posted record highs in revenue, pre-tax profit and net profit," said Toshiba vice president Fumio Muraoka.
Toshiba said it enjoyed brisk demand for its electronics products, including personal computers, televisions and portable digital music players.
"Sales of the television and PC divisions were particularly strong overseas, bringing larger profits," he said.
Toshiba also saw strong sales of semiconductors including NAND flash memory chips - the technology vital to MP3 players and other consumer electronics.
Prices of NAND flash memory have fallen dramatically due to intense competition, dropping by as much as 70 percent in the business year to March.
Toshiba, which earns about half of its total profit by selling memory chips, reported 128.3 billion yen in operating profit in its semiconductor division, down 5.7 billion yen from a year earlier.
"We believe we have done well considering the drastic fall in the price of NAND memory chips," Muraoka said.
It also credited its US$5.4 billion purchase of Westinghouse from British Nuclear Fuels for the profits gain.
"The power systems business saw sales rise on the consolidation of Westinghouse into the group," the company said in an earning report statement.
However, it forecast a 17.4 per cent drop in net profit in the current year to March 2008 to 120 billion yen, in part due to the cost of consolidating Westinghouse, which it hopes will benefit from a resurgence in the US nuclear power market.
At the same time, revenue is expected to edge up by five per cent and operating profit by 1.6 per cent.
The company said sales of mobile telephones decreased at home last year amid tough competition and warned that the NAND bonanza would gradually fade.
Operating profits from electronics devices "is expected to be lower than in fiscal year 2006, reflecting market price declines in NAND flash memories," the statement said.
- AFP/yy
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