TOKYO (AP) — Panasonic's January-March losses ballooned 10-fold to 438 billion yen
($5 billion), completing a year of record red ink at the Japanese
electronics maker battered by natural disasters and an ailing TV
business.
Panasonic Corp. had racked up a 40.7 billion yen loss the same period the previous year.
The
Osaka-based maker of Viera TVs and Lumix digital cameras reported
Friday a record loss of 772.2 billion yen ($9.6 billion), a reversal
from the 74 billion yen profit a year ago and among the biggest in
Japan's manufacturing history.
That comes a day after Panasonic's archrival Sony Corp. racked up a record annual loss of 457 billion yen ($5.7 billion) in its fourth straight year of red ink.
Sony,
which makes the Walkman portable audio player and PlayStation game
machine, had a 255 billion yen ($3.2 billion) loss January-March — its
fifth straight quarterly net loss to round out a fiscal year that was
the worst in its 66-year corporate history.
Both companies' TV operations, centering around flat-panel sets, have been battered by a powerful Samsung Electronics Co. of South Korea and other Asian players.
A strong yen has also eroded the value of overseas earnings for the Japanese.
Like
Sony, which is hoping for a turnaround under a new president, Kazuo
Hirai, Panasonic has tapped Kazuhiro Tsuga as president. The
appointments still need shareholder approval.
Panasonic
is forecasting a return to profit for the fiscal year ending March
2013, at 50 billion yen ($625 million) profit on 8.1 trillion yen ($101
billion) sales, up 3 percent.
Panasonic
does not have the entertainment or gaming businesses of Sony. But it is
struggling as it attempts to strengthen solar panel and battery
operations, including auto batteries, to find new areas of growth.
In
a strategy released Friday, Panasonic said it will focus on business
customers, not just individual consumers. It will increasingly target
global buyers such as refrigerators in China and TVs in India, it said.
The
company booked 767 billion yen ($9.6 billion) in restructuring expenses
over the fiscal year ended March, to turn itself around, including
cutting costs in TV operations.
Panasonic's sales fell in every major region, including the U.S., Europe, Japan, China and the rest of Asia.
Quarterly
sales slipped 8 percent to 1.88 trillion yen ($23.5 billion). Annual
sales plunged 10 percent to 7.85 trillion yen ($98 billion).
"Business
conditions deteriorated," Panasonic said in a statement, listing as
negatives the supply chain disruptions from the tsunami in northeastern
Japan and the floods in Thailand.
It
also blamed the European financial crisis for slowing demand and cited
worries about a steady and cheap electricity supply as a concern.
The
tsunami last year set off meltdowns at several reactors at a nuclear
power plant and is putting the supply of cheap power at risk.
Panasonic lost 1.5 percent to close at 570 yen in Tokyo. Trading ended shortly before results were released. (Yahoo)
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