Panasonic president Fumio Otsubo announces the company’s business strategy at a press conference in Tokyo yesterday. Panasonic said yesterday it posted a net loss of ¥136.15bn ($1.7bn) between April and September
Japanese electronics maker Panasonic forecast an annual net loss of ¥420bn ($5.5bn), its biggest in a decade, as it cut unprofitable businesses deeper and faster than first planned, while battling a soaring yen and weak demand in the US and Europe.
Panasonic accelerated the pace of restructuring as it races to shake off losses at its TV unit — a problem it shares with rival Sony — and strips out overlapping businesses after its buyout of subsidiary Sanyo.
In April, Panasonic said it would cut 17,000 jobs by March 2013, but the maker of Viera televisions and Lumix cameras announced yesterday it now expects to reach its goal of slimming its work force to 350,000 or fewer a year ahead of schedule.
Panasonic said it will stop liquid-crystal panel production at its Mobara plant near Tokyo and is cancelling its plans to ship plasma-panel manufacturing equipment from another mothballed plant to Shanghai to start production there, as it aims to turn a profit on TVs in its next fiscal year.
The company cut its full-year operating profit forecast to ¥130bn from 270bn. That is far below market expectations of a ¥225bn profit, based on the average estimate of 21 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
For July-September, Panasonic reported an operating profit of ¥42bn, beating its own forecast of ¥4.4bn profit, but falling short of analysts’ average estimate of ¥50bn.
It had reported an operating profit of ¥85.2bn a year earlier. For the remainder of the business year, Panasonic estimates a dollar-yen rate of ¥76 and a rate of ¥105 against the euro.