Panasonic Posts First Profit in 3 Years, Delays Forecast
April 28, 2011, 3:13 AM EDTBy Mariko Yasu
(Updates with annual earnings in the second paragraph.)
April 28 (Bloomberg) -- Panasonic Corp. reported its first annual profit in three years, helped by sales of audio-visual products and appliances.
Net income was 74 billion yen ($905 million) for the 12 months ended March 31, compared with a loss of 103.5 billion yen a year earlier, the Osaka-based company said in a statement today. Profit missed the 92 billion yen average of 11 analyst estimates compiled in the past 28 days by Bloomberg.
The company delayed issuing an earnings forecast, citing difficulties in making an estimate because of disruptions following the March 11 earthquake
Panasonic had halted six domestic plants making products including televisions, camera lenses, electronics materials and display panels after the disaster. A liquid-crystal display factory in Chiba prefecture, near Tokyo, will restart by end of this month, the last one to resume since the quake, the company said this month.
Revenue rose 17 percent to 8.69 trillion yen, the company said. Income at the main audio-visual products division increased 32 percent to 114.9 billion yen in the 12-month period from a year earlier. Profit at the appliances unit rose 40 percent to 92.3 billion yen.
Panasonic rose 2.4 percent to 998 yen at the 3 p.m. close of trading in Tokyo, before the earnings announcement. The stock has declined 13 percent this year compared with a 3.7 percent drop for the benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average.
--Editors: Suresh Seshadri, Young-Sam Cho
To contact the reporter on this story: Mariko Yasu in Tokyo at myasu@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Young-Sam Cho at ycho2@bloomberg.net.
