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Earnings Panasonic UPDATE3(Japan Economic Newswire Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) TOKYO, Oct. 31 -- (Kyodo) _ (EDS: ADDING INFO, DETAILS IN 4TH, 6TH-8TH GRAFS) Panasonic Corp. said Monday it is anticipating a huge group net loss of 420 billion yen for the fiscal year ending March as it faces restructuring costs related to its loss-making businesses, a reversal from a profit of 74.02 billion yen in the previous year. The projected loss covers expenses totaling 514 billion yen, including 404 billion yen in restructuring costs related to its flat television and semiconductor operations, the company said. Sales, meanwhile, are projected to drop sharply on intensifying competition overseas in digital products as well as the strong yen that is hurting the Japanese company's competitive edge abroad and offshore earnings. Panasonic also said its bottom line will be impacted by a surge in material prices. The projected net loss of 420 billion yen will be the largest since the business year ended March 2002, when predecessor Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. reported a loss of 427.8 billion yen due to a slump in the information technology industry and massive restructuring costs. The company, known for its Viera brand TV sets, said it is expecting a group operating profit of 130 billion yen for the full year, down 57.4 percent from the previous year, on sales of 8.3 trillion yen, down 4.5 percent. The Panasonic group workforce will be reduced to less than 350,000 by the end of this fiscal year, from around 360,000 employees as of Sept. 30, a year ahead of its earlier schedule, Panasonic President Fumio Otsubo told a news conference in Tokyo. Under the restructuring measures, the company said it will suspend plasma display panel production at two factories in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, and consolidate the output into one plant. It will also cease output of liquid crystal display panels at its plant in Mobara, Chiba Prefecture. Its LCD panel production will be consolidated into one plant and output will be expanded for non-TV uses such as monitors for automobiles and medical purposes, while more TV panel production will be outsourced to other manufacturers, the company said. "We are determined to make the TV business profitable in fiscal 2012," Otsubo said. He said that TVs represent its global products and symbolize its brand. "TVs remain our important product, but we were not able to make profits from them," Otsubo said. The company said it has cut its projection for annual TV sales in the current business year from 25 million units to 19 million units. For the April to September period, the major Japanese electronics maker said it posted a group net loss of 136.15 billion yen, against a net profit of 74.72 billion yen a year earlier, and an operating profit of 47.60 billion yen, down 71.8 percent. Its consolidated sales dropped 8.3 percent to 4.01 trillion yen, the company said. (c) 2011 Kyodo News International, Inc. |