Panasonic books solid net profit in April-December last year

Panasonic Corp. on Tuesday reported a solid group net profit for the April-December period last year, owing to cost-cutting initiatives and robust sales of its housing equipment and automotive electronic parts.

The Osaka-based multinational electronics maker said its operating profit increased 10.3 percent to 290.27 billion yen (2. 47 billion U.S. dollars) in the recording period, although noted its sales edged up just 0.7 percent to 5.72 trillion yen (48.69 billion U.S. dollars).

The firm managed to log a healthy operating profit for the nine- month period, due to cost-cutting initiatives such as exiting from its plasma TV business and focusing on new core businesses, as per senior managing director Hideaki Kawai's plans, which include moving away from standard consumer electronics and moving towards products like solar panels in Japan and further pushing its automotive-related business overseas.

In the quarter that ended December, Panasonic said that such cuts and innovations had led to an increase in operating profit by 13 billion yen (110.66 million U.S. dollars), with the conglomerate adding it had logged a 59.5 billion yen (506 million U.S. dollars) profit in the three month period.

The group net profit in the April-December period slumped 42.2 percent to 140.42 billion yen (1.2 billion U.S. dollars) from a year earlier, Panasonic said, because at that time a one-time special gain was provided by a pension program.

Panasonic maintained its earnings outlook for the full year ending March, with the company expecting a net profit of 175 billion yen (1.49 billion U.S. dollars), a 45.3 percent increase, on revenue of 7.750 trillion yen (65.97 billion U.S. dollars), a 0. 2 percent increase. It also said it expects a 14.7 percent increase in operating profit to 350 billion yen (2.98 billion U.S. dollars). Endi